Shakira will lend her voice to five songs and the music will be composed by India's Debajyoti Mishra for the proposed film. Titled "Desire The Flying Butter", the film will be co-produced by a "friend of mine", said Nirjhar.

Nirjhar chose to keep the cast of the film under a wrap but said, "it will have some known and little-known actors from India and Bangladesh".

Replying to a question, he said efforts were also on to rope in Shakira to act in the film that will be shot in India, Bangladesh, Scotland and some other countries.

The director, an architect by qualification and profession, also declined to share the storyline of the film saying "we will disclose everything gradually".

"We are keeping mum right now on the cast and story of the film for strategic reasons but we will let you know everything in course of time", said Nirjhar.

Asked about the subject of the movie, he said, "it is going to be unlike ten other films. It will be a different kind of film.

"All that I can say now is that we want to prove our existence, our desire and friendship of the sub-continent so that we in this region stand with our heads held high." Nirjhar's alliance with Debajyoti Mishra goes back to 2007 when the composer did the soundtrack of the director's debut film 'Aha' which is about a century-old house and the characters surrounding it.

The film, with a cast comprising some of the leading names of Bangladesh theatre and parallel cinema like Humayun Faridi, Tariq Anam Khan and Khaled Khan, won national awards in Bangladesh for best direction, editing, female singer and cinematography.

'Aha', screened at several international festivals like Munich, Cairo and Dubai, was also Bangladesh's nomination for the Oscars.