Zee TV's ambitious part movie-part animation project "Bhagmati - Queen of Fortunes" has finally been slotted for an August release.

Directed by Ashok Kaul, the project took off with a big bang more than six years ago and has been awaiting release for the last two years. The 2 hours 40 minutes film stars Hema Malini, Tabu and Milind Soman.

"The film has taken its own share of time in the making and release but it's probably the best creative work in which animation has been used for storytelling," says Kaul, who is eagerly awaiting the film's release.

The film, made by animation artistes from the Zee Institute of Creative Arts headed by Kaul, tells a 400-year old story of the romance between Qutub Ali Shah and Princess Bhagmati.

Kaul says he did intensive research on the subject before writing the screenplay. It was during the research that they discovered a tunnel going from Golkunda Fort to Charminar, which is also shown in the film.

The film has music by Vishal Bharadwaj (of "Maachis" and "Satya" fame) and Kaul insists that Bharadwaj has given his career best score in "Bhagmati...". The film's music is scheduled for release July 20.