MUMBAI: Noted film producer and Kaleidoscope Entertainment promoter Bobby Bedi is on an epic project. His plan: to repurpose Mahabharata so that it can roam across various formats including a TV series, a film trilogy, an animation product, and a theme park.

Bedi had first announced plans for the Mahabharat project around the time his big-budget film Mangal Pandey released in August of 2005.

"For creating the entire chain of products, it would require an investment of around Rs 4 billion. The idea is to make it for the global market," Bedi tells Indiantelevision.com.

First would be the creation of reality TV through a talent hunt for the Mahabharata characters. This, he says, would take about a year.

The talent hunt would next move to a Mahabharata TV series which could stretch to 150 episodes. Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi would direct the series. "It will transform Indian television and travel across the world. We can make it in many languages," Bedi says.

Bedi intends to invest Rs 160-170 million in just the development stage. "For completing the entire chain, it would require over three years. Developing gaming would require around $2 million," he says.

The animation work will be assigned to a company which has US and Indian base. He, however, refused to divulge the name of the animation firm.

Will he rope in joint ventures to fund the project? "No, the investment will be done by Kaleidoscope. We may have partners," he says.

Mahabharata will be made into a comic book series as well. A theme park based on the Mahabharata is also in the pipeline.

Delivering the keynote address at "India - The Big Picture," Bedi said the project would involve multiple location shoots and be in multi-languages. "This is the direction Indian entertainment should be taking," he added.