Glimpses of palatial sets, period costumes, a headstrong man, his ethereal muses, colour, passion, sex and controversy - a first look at Ketan Mehta's upcoming movie 'Rang Rasiya', a tribute to India's 19th century painter Raja Ravi Varma's life, leaves the audience asking for more.

Based on Marathi author Ranjit Desai's novel, the film stars Randeep Hooda of 'D' fame as Raja Ravi Varma and Nandana Sen as Sugandha, one of his muses. The preview itself speaks a lot about the research that has been undertaken to get each element to suit the mood of the painter's era.

'We have done a whole lot of research. Since Ravi Varma was a painter, we took a lot of cues from his paintings itself. All of it definitely required immense historical research, ' Mehta told.

He spoke on the sidelines of the unveiling of Raja Ravi Varma's costliest painting that has been acquired by Osian's Connoisseurs of Art. The ceremony unfolded at the ongoing 10th Osian's-Cinefan Film Festival of Asian and Arab Cinemas here Monday.

The filmmaker had acquired the rights for the novel 'Raja Ravi Varma' by Marathi author Ranjit Desai.

While Mehta roped in art director Nitin Desai to design the sets, he chose Niharika Khan to do the costume designing.

'Rang Rasiya' has been made on a budget of Rs.120 million and is expected to release towards the end of September this year.' Mehta said.

'It is a colourful film. And it talks about all aspects of Ravi Varma's life - his muses, love and court case.'

The six-minute trailer that was showcased here at Osian's was heavily loaded with sensuous scenes between Randeep and Nandana. The censor might snip it, but Mehta is not perturbed.

'I hope that the audiences see the entire film and consider it a worthy investment of their time, money and energy. After all they will be spending two and a half hours of their lives, ' he quipped.

Explaining his choice of Randeep as the protagonist, Mehta said: 'He is a brilliant actor and very skilful. I knew he would do justice to the role.'

An English version of the film titled 'Colours of Passion' will also be released.