Last week writer-director-producer Akbar Khan announced the lead pair of his period piece, Taj Mahal-An EternFal Love Story, at an open-air party at the Mehrangarh fort in Jodhpur. Fountains were turned on, lights were blurred and muslin curtains of a fabricated Rajput canopy were lifted to reveal the actors who till now were a fiercely guarded secret-debutante Sonya Jehan as Arjumand Bano or Mumtaz Mahal and model Zulfikar Syed as Khurram, or the young Shahjahan. The former, a nom de plume for Sonya Rizvi, is the granddaughter of Pakistani singer Noorjehan, and Khan discovered her two years ago studying surface design at St Martin's School of Art in London. "I waited one and a half years for her to finish her course before finally bringing her down for auditions," says Khan, suggesting that the auditions were anyway a formality. The 23-year-old Jehan will not just be acting in the film, she'll be singing her own songs as well, reviving the cult of the crooning character only heard sporadically since the heyday of Salma Agha, if not Noorjehan herself. "I heard her voice," continues Khan, "I told her you have to sing, you have it in your genes." The music is by none other than Naushad, so the actress, as yet without formal training and still pushing Khan to find her a guru, will have some ground to cover.

SET TO ROLL: Khan introduces surprise co-stars Jehan and Syed; Pooja Batra as Noorjehan with Arbaaz Ali as Jehangir; and Bedi as the ageing Shahjahan

Bangalore boy Syed, 25 and on to his second film, was discovered by Mariam, Akbar Khan's wife, while searching on the Net for a younger-looking version of Kabir Bedi, the older Shahjahan, a round-the-clock mourner for his interred beloved. Forty per cent of the film, also starring Pooja Batra as Noorjehan, Kim Sharma as Ladili Begum and Manisha Koirala as Jahan Ara and shot almost entirely at Mehrangarh, is complete. Now the scenes involving Arjumand and Khurram have to be done. Syed wears a buff-brown shoulder-length wig (that smoothly mutates into Bedi's white-haired one without any palpable hair loss), and does end up looking astonishingly like Bedi. "Friends had told me I always did," he says, "But when I was asked to do the film I had no idea I'd actually be playing a younger him. I'm sure I'll carry it off." It'd be better if he does. The young actor, whose emotional eligibility has yet to be tested by the public, might find himself carrying the burden of what is perhaps India's most expensive film ever.

Which means it will cross Rs 50 crore, the benchmark set by Devdas, another eternal love story. Parts of the 15th century Mehrangarh fort have been leased for three years from Gaj Singh, the former Maharaja of Jodhpur, and many of its corridors, rooms and courtyards recreated to look like sovereign suites of the Agra Fort. There are 14 sets, coated with ersatz marble, painted like pietra dura and sprayed with compressed canned gold, and according to assistant art director Chandra Vadan More, each was built for about Rs 25 lakh. The trophy set is of the pillared balcony from where the incarcerated Shahjahan spent his last years looking at the smaller but perfectly proportioned model of the Taj placed tactically in the chrome blue horizon. Since shooting in Agra is minimal, special effects will dominate the cinematography. Various stages of the building of the Taj will be superimposed on the recreated balcony of the weeping king.

LOCATION The 15th century Mehrangarh fort at Jodhpur, the seat of the kingdom of Marwar, has been leased to the unit for three years.	SETS Fourteen lavish sets have been constructed on the upper storeys of the fort to resemble the royal apartments at Agra's Red Fort.	COSTS The film is set to overtake the Rs 50 crore Devdas. Akbar Khan has even put up his property as collateral to get bank funds.

The cummerbunds, angharkhas and the rest of the costumes, some costing over Rs 50,000 each, have been overseen by Bollywood designer Anna Singh and many genuine antiques pieces have been sourced from across north India. Singh, a veteran of 500 films, has for the first time moved away from her usual ensemble, closely assisted by classics like the Metropolitan Museum of Arts' The Emperor's Album and more recently, The Nizam's Jewels.

COSTUMES Every leading character has a minimum of 14 costumes, many made from antique textiles. Prices go up to Rs 50,000 for each.

Each of the dresses was tailormade for the different Mughal personalities. Jehangir (played by Arbaaz Ali) in vermilion had to be more flamboyant than Aurangzeb (Arbaaz Khan) who was always in green. In one of the many improvisations, tanchoi fabrics from Varanasi were cleverly used the wrong side up to arrest the brilliance and introduce character-driven sobriety. "It was hectic because I was also doing the costumes for Boom and making dot diamond bikinis in the morning and feathers in crowns in the evening. I thought if there's confusion here we are screwed," laughs Singh. It doesn't seem to have happened.

Khan is also planning to shoot in Uzbekistan and some parts of Africa for the decisive battle of Samugarh in which Aurangzeb topples his brother Dara Shikoh in the final lap for the throne. The battle will feature 20,000 fully-costumed extras, so even a Rs 50 crore price tag appears conservative. Where is the money coming from? The Jodhpur announcement party had a large contingent from the Bank of Baroda, who Khan said was the financier of the film, calling it an unprecedented alignment of entertainment and sensible economics. The film posters, soon to been plastered round the cities, also acknowledges the bank. So what did he offer as collateral? "My property," says Khan. Courageous move considering that hits have become a rarity in Bollywood.