Ajey Jhankar is a man with a dream. His $42 million project The Invaders -- which stars Vivek Oberoi and possibly Aishwarya Rai and will be directed by Roland Joffe -- has been in the eye of a controversy ever since it was announced two months ago.

Rumours insist the project had been shelved for lack of funds. But the producer has another story. 

The ambitious epic is all set to roll in a couple of months, he tells Subhash K Jha: 

Is The Invaders happening?

Very much so. I returned from London recently and was aghast when I was shown write-ups suggesting The Invaders had been shelved. No one had bothered to verify with me. I have been abroad organising resources for the film.

The film has already been funded over a year ago through a Los Angeles-based bank. My bankers opened the doors to Hollywood for me. I was there for one-and-a-half years.

We have also swung the US pre-sales of the film and have finalised the international cast.

So who stars in The Invaders?

We have just sealed the deal with Brendan Fraser of The Mummy and George Of The Jungle. He is a huge star and we are paying him his full market price.

We have also signed Vivek Oberoi and zeroed in on Aishwarya Rai though we have not yet signed her. Roland wants to speak to her first. Every actor, however big, will have to attend a two-week workshop with Roland and his team.

Does Vivek have a pivotal role?

Huge, huge. He is one of the three lead characters. The main conflict is between a British and an Indian soldier, played by Brendan and Vivek.

Was Vivek your first choice?

He was Roland Joffe's choice. We were trying for Aamir Khan. We had three meetings with him in London and in Mumbai.

Finally, though, Vivek was the best choice since the character needed to be 22 years old. Vivek is a solid blend of action and emotion.

How did this project come about?

I am too small a person to even dream about such a huge project. I started my career in advertising. My two earlier productions were small Marathi films -- Sarkarnama and Lekroo -- which were big successes.

About six years ago, during the course of my studies, I stumbled on the subject of The Invaders. I felt it had the potential of a large-scale, Hollywood-style period epic like [Mel Gibson's] Braveheart, [Gibson's] The Patriot and [Russell Crowe's] Gladiator.

My research on the subject took me to London, where I was granted a fellowship for five years. Then I went to Hollywood because The Invaders had to be done on an epic scale. We want to take the subject to every corner of the world.

Was Roland Joffe your first choice as director?

He was one of the names on my Top 10 list. Roland was the right choice for The Invaders because he was qualified on many levels. He has made a war film -- The Killing Fields -- and he has made a film in India, City Of Joy. He has won an Oscar. He has never left a project incomplete.

I wrote the first draft of The Invaders. But the final script is Roland's. We expect him to make a grand return with Invaders.

When does The Invaders go on the floors?

We have already spent Rs 6.5 crores [Rs 65 million] and finalised all the locations. I am spending Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh [Rs 300,000 to Rs 400,000] on the project every day.

We have been lying low because we do not want to give away details of the script right now.

Our pre-production will start at the end of May or the beginning of June. Earlier, it was scheduled for February, but it was ruled out because the monsoon would disrupt the shooting, which meant a waste of $3.5 million.

I am very clear about one thing. There will be no cash transaction at any stage of the production. The Invaders will be made completely on corporate funds. Without that, my completion guaranters will not cooperate with me.

What sort of release do you plan?

There will be two separate versions in English and Hindi. Ninety per cent of the film will be shot in India, mainly in parts of Madhya Pradesh, which no one has ever seen on screen. A team of 25 people did the location hunting.

We are negotiating with A R Rahman to do the music. But he is doing Ketan Mehta's The Rising [starring Aamir Khan], which might overlap with our project.