The new company, Lucky Star Entertainment, has signed up directors Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi of Chanakya fame, Partho Ghosh and S Priyadarshan for three different projects. Mr Dwivedi will make the movie on Lord Krishna while Mr Ghosh will direct a Rs 6-crore love story. The company is talking to Akshay Kumar and Manoj Bajpai to star in Mr Ghosh's movie which is slated for a theatrical release on May, 2001.

Lucky Star Entertainment has also signed up Mr Anup Jalota and Mohammed Mr Aziz for Rs 6 lakh each to release devotional albums. While the two singers are signed for single projects, Mr Mangal Singh has confirmed for a three-year contract for Punjabi pop albums.

The script on Lord Krishna will be finalised by mid-January. The movie is expected to be released by the end of next year, said Mr Umesh Gandhi, vice-president, finance, Lucky Star Entertainment. "A major part of the costs will be in making the sets and on special effects which may be done abroad," he added.

Mr Nitin Desai will be the art director while Mr Munish Sappal will do the costumes for the movie.

Lucky Star plans to produce around three movies a year. The company also proposes to release around five albums a month, Mr Gandhi said. On the anvil are releases in Tamil and Gujarati language albums.

The company has just released Shail Oswal's Kahan Hai Tu. The price of each cassette is Rs 50. The devotional albums will cost lower at Rs 35 per cassette. The distribution is being handled by the company with its 150-strong network, said Mr Gandhi.