The name Walt Disney evokes respect and admiration world over for quality films in both the animation and live action categories.

The latest news is that Walt Disney in association with Bharath Bala Productions will be producing a film in English titled '19 Steps'. The backdrop of the film would be martial arts and world audiences will get a taste of some exquisite Indian forms of combat like Kalaripayattu.

Kamal Haasan is slated to play a veteran Kalaripayattu expert who takes it upon himself to train a young Japanese man. Popular Japanese star Tadanobu Asano will play the young man and the story would revolve around his quests in life. Asin is to play a character most actresses around the world would die for….a local princess and a martial arts expert who finds herself falling in love with the Japanese lad in this period film. The film also traces the roots of Kalaripayattu.

The movie is expected to be filmed with a budget of $50 million and will have versions in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Japanese.

The story of the film is based on veteran Malayalam scriptwriter M. T. Vasudevan's earlier work. The writer is one of the highly respected personalities in India winning five National Awards for screenplay writing. However, Hollywood writers have been appointed to work on the script to make it compatible to international standards.

The film will be directed by Bharath Bala and will have music by A. R. Rahman.

Watch this space for more updates.