‘Roadside Romeo’ is the much awaited and forthcoming animated movie in Bollywood. Roadside Romeo is the debut venture of actor turned writer and director Jugal Hansraj. Jugal Hansraj has previously acted in Mohabbatein (2000) and Salaam Namaste (2005). “Roadside Romeo” is said to be the first Indian animated movie that is being co-produced by Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney Company. The movie will be produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra under the banner Yash Raj Films.

Roadside Romeo is said to use the computer animation technology that is completely done in India. The movie is said to have music, dance sequences, romance and everything else that is usually there in Yash Raj movies. ‘Roadside Romeo’ will hit the silver screen on October 24th 2008.  For the first time Saif ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor have lend their voices for the animated creatures. In “Roadside Romeo” Saif Ali Khan plays the role of Romeo, Kareena Kapoor as Laila and Javed Jaffery as Charlie Anna.

BharathBala Productions (BBP), a popular production house which makes television commercials, documentaries and music videos has now tied up with Walt Disney to produce a feature film in English. They are making a martial arts film titled 19 Steps. The cast of the movie are Padmashree Kamal Hassan, Japanese superstar Tadanobu Asano, and Asin in the lead roles.

19 Steps will be directed by Bharath Bala and music will be scored by leading music director A.R Rahman. Bala and Rahman duo have produced extraordinary music video documentaries like Jana Gana Mana and Vande Mataram.

Bala’s film is based on a script written by the best known writer in Malayalam M.T Vasudevan Nair, a Jnanpith award winner who has won five National awards for screenplay writing. This period film deals with Kalaripayattu the martial arts form from Kerala and will trace its roots to the ninth century.

M.T Vasudevan Nair, the 75 year old literary giant has contributed Kerala folklores and warlords in films like Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha and are now the script writer of Hariharan directed Pazhassi Raja, the costliest Malayalam film ever, a historical featuring Mammootty and Sarath Kumar.

In the film Kamal plays a character role of a veteran Kalaripayattu guru who trains Tadanobu Asano in his fight against his enemies. Asin will play a princess and a martial arts expert who falls in love with Asano. The shooting of the $ 50 million film is likely to start in the summer 2009. Walt Disney wants a fusion of Japanese and Indian martial arts in the film. It will have versions in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Japanese. Recently Bharat Bala told a tabloid “It’s too early to disclose anything. Currently we are in the midst of negotiations.”

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