Ace filmmaker Santosh Sivan is all set to begin work on his latest venture - a Hollywood film to be entirely filmed in Kerala.

Santosh is director and cinematographer of the film, which has been given the working title "Kerala", to be shot in Munnar early next year.

Sanjeev Sivan, his filmmaker brother, said: "It is being jointly produced by Echo Lake Productions of Los Angeles, Adirondack Pictures of New York and Santosh Sivan Productions of India. The film will be released worldwide by mid 2006."

Sanjeev said, "The film is set in the 1940s with the freedom struggle as backdrop and the attempts of the English to create in roads into the spice heartland of Kerala."

According to Sanjeev, his brother had to make a lot of effort to convince the Hollywood team to shoot in Kerala rather than in South Africa and Brazil.

The first ever Hollywood venture to be shot in God's Own Country, as Kerala is known, "will go a long way to showcase the natural beauty as well as the rich cultural tradition of the land", said Sanjeev.

The American cast includes William Jaudon, Jennifer Ryan and William Roache.

The Indian cast consists of Bollywood actors Nandita Das and Rahul Bose, along with Tilakan, Manoj K. Jayan and Nedumudi Venu from the Malayalam film industry.