Hindi film producer-director Subhash Ghai has completed a forty-day shoot of his period epic Kisna in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.

The US$5m Kisna is the most expensive film made by Ghai's Mukta Arts. The company's credits include Taal, which was the first Indian film to feature in both the UK and US top ten box office charts.

The UK-Indian love story is set in the 1940s and stars Vivek Oberoi (Kisna), and Isha Sharvani and Antonia Bernath.

Kisna will be released in the international market as a specially edited two-hour English version. The Hindi version will be a regular three-hour feature film with songs and dances.

Ghai said: "It's purely an Indian film with Indian music, Indian values and Indian emotions".

The film is written by Subhash Ghai himself, along with former Channel 4 commissioning editor Farrukh Dhondy, Indian scriptwriter Sachin Bhowmick and the UK's Margaret Glover.

The film is likely to be ready for release by November 2004.