The battle is obviously heating up between Uru Patel's Hanuman and Raj Kumar Santoshi's Ramayan. While the former stars Keanu Reeves and Shilpa Shetty as Ram and Sita respectively, the latter boasts of having Ajay Devgan and Kajol play the mythological couple.

The latest addition though to the patel band wagon is Kevin Costner playing Ravan.

Uru's Hanuman is being directed by Louis Mendoki and has a reported budget of $60 million. Mandoki has previously directed Hollywood films like When a Man Loves a Woman and Message in a Bottle.

Producer Patel is exceptionally tight-lipped about the project. All the actors who have so far been finalised have been asked to maintain a strict code of silence since he doesn't want stars like Keanu Reeves and Kevin Costner to up their price just because the news of their involvement has come out. Parts of the film will be shot in Morocco, another part representing a bar in downtown New York, will be shot in Canada.

Reportedly Ravan's name has been altered to Robert Ravon. He plays the owner of the bar. Aseem Merchant, who plays Laxman has been a re-christened Lucky. He plays a deejay in the bar owned by Ravan/Ravon.

There's also talk of the luscious Drew Barrymore being paired with Merchant. Uru has decided to completely revamp the Ramayan to suit a modern context.

Santoshi on his part is in London to finalise the special effects for Ramayan.

Uru has finalised Mark Rappaport and his company Creature Effects Inc, responsible for the amazing optical wizardry in The Chronicles Of Narnia and 300.