The Many Layers of Mahesh

Exciting news for Mahesh fans! He is going to be starring in Mani Ratnam's next film, a period film based on a revered Tamil novel called Ponniyen Selvan. The book is truly an epic piece of literature according to it's wiki page. At 2400 pages I think  I better start reading it now, so I can finish it by the time the film comes out!  The movie will also star Tamil Hero Arya and some reports have said Vijay will feature in it too. Mahesh is known to be an excellent actor and a bit of an enigma on and off screen. His fans will be curious and excited to see the kind of multi-layered performance Ratnam will get out of Mahesh as he brings a classic piece of Literature to the big screen....
    Oh wait, that's not the kind of multi-layers his female fans are concerned with. Oh no. We want to know if Mahesh will shed his usual multi-layered clothing style to go shirtless in a period film. That is the real question!
    I mean look, if it's going to be about the 10th and 11th century Chola Dynasty he has to be dressed appropriately right? Take a look at these pictures:

I am not seeing room for any t-shirt with a  longsleeved shirt under a jacket with a scarf while fighting in the desert combinations ala Khaleja in 10th century Chola land.

Or his usual 3 layers: t-shirt, long sleeved shirt (sometimes rolled up!) jacket sans scarf ala Pokiri.

It's no use ladies you won't get those layers off him.

Sometimes he changes things up by wearing the long sleeved shirt under the t-shirt!

Knowing Mahesh, I'm guessing there is a t-shirt hidden under these layers:

Mahesh even goes to the beach fully clothed. Well it is hot so he rolled up his sleeves to get some sun.

I noticed that in his earlier films he was frequently wearing only one short sleeved shirt and an undershirt.

For a while I blamed his wife Namrata for having him so layered with excess clothes, but then I noticed there are pictures of him in public with his wife, where there is excessive skin show!

No undershirt! Chest hair exposed!

Usually Mahesh looks fabulous, even in all those layers.

Sometimes mistakes are made.

But the big question is why? Why all the layers Mahesh? Maybe he is excessively shy and modest. Maybe the people in charge of continuity on the sets don't want to deal with excessive sweat stains...

Who knows, and with Mani Ratnam's film the question will no longer be relevent. There will be no shirt counting in that film. Maybe we will have the pleasure of counting abs...and we will wonder "Will he go for a 6 pack or will he stay more natural"?

Only Mahesh knows the answer and he's not likely to talk!