2003 will see the first animated film on the life of Hanuman.

"Many people know about the Ramayan, but few know about the life of Lord Hanuman. So we decided to make this film," says V G Samant, the film's writer and director.

The story follows Hanuman's birth, childhood and his life with Lord Ram.

Samant says it took 120 people, 150,000 drawings and two years to complete the film, which is produced by Converge Media, a producer of animation movies with offices in Los Angeles and New Jersey and production facilities in Manila and Mumbai.

"It is a mythological and will surely be liked by everyone," says Cyrus Mistry, senior vice-president, operations & planning, Convergence Media. "We plan to release the film in as many locations as we can."

"It is in Hindi, but it has been made in such a way that it can be dubbed into any language," adds Mistry.

"I believe in Lord Hanuman," says Samant, "and I want more people to know about him."

Interestingly, another movie on Hanuman is being planned -- not an animation film though.

Hanuman will be set in contemporary America and feature an immigrant Indian family in New Jersey whose young boy doesn't believe in Hanuman.

"It's an adventure on the level of Spider-man and Superman. We will show the Ramayan in today's context. Ram and Sita will have parallel representative characters in the film. The idea is to blend Bollywood and Hollywood," Kaante international producer Raju Patel told rediff.com recently.