London based film producer Sevy Ali and well known Indian film maker Mahesh Bhatt are working together on an Indian Pakistani co-production.

The yet to be titled film is a love story set against the backdrop of violence and turmoil that occurred during "partition" - the separation of Pakistan and India in 1947.

Mahesh Bhatt told Screen Daily: "We hope this will be the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the two countries, to break down barriers and draw the Indian and Pakistani communities into a closer friendship."

Producer Sevy Ali, of London based Pakistani company Bizmane Entertainment, added "A few years ago this kind of film would have been unthinkable." Ali has previously produced and distributed a number of UK and Indian television serials that were widely broadcast throughout India, Pakistan and the UK. He is also currently co-producing White Noise with Indian filmmaker Vinta Nanda.

Indian filmmakers have previously made films with Pakistan as a theme or as a background. J.P. Dutta made Refugee in which an Indian boy (Abhishek Bachchan) and a Bangladeshi girl settled in Pakistan and were shown having their child at the India-Pakistan border. Randhir Kapoor produced and directed Henna, about a Pakistani girl who falls in love with an Indian man after he strays into Pakistan.