Noted Malayalam director Shaji N Karun has embarked on a Hindi movie on legendary painter Raja Ravi Varma, which is to be the first ever movie on the Indian artist.

Conceived as a death centenary tribute to the creative genius whose paintings are greatly appreciated in India and abroad, Shaji plans to start the film after finalising the cast soon.

'The focus of my film is on the period between 1890 and 1901 in Ravi Varma's life when he worked in Mumbai after setting up Chitrasala Press. This was a creatively fruitful as well as personally agonising phase in the artist's life,' Shaji said.

Shaji, who started as a cinematographer and won national acclaim as director for his works like Piravi and Swaham said, 'no other artist before Ravi Varma had tried to foster national unity through images. This is evident from his work based on mythological themes as well as the Indian scenes he depicted. It goes to his credit for popularising 'sari' the national dress of Indian woman,' Shaji said.