Not a role, the role. They approached him to play the title role. He wanted it done as a bilingual. So things didn't materialize.
They thank ManiRatnam in the credits, wonder why ?
Everything came together so well in the movie. I wanted to quote an article in ToI, written by Tyrewala about screenwriting in general, and Mabool in particular. I have the hard copy snipped but I can't find it online.