The ''much-awaited'' remake of the 70s classic ‘Umrao Jaan' has been launched.

Writer-producer-director J P Dutta launched the film, which is also titled ‘Umrao Jaan', last week in Mumbai with a song recording, trade sources said.

Alka Yagnik will be the voice of Umrao Jaan in the film while the title role will be played by former Miss World Aishwarya Rai.

Besides Aishwarya, the film stars Abhishek Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Sunil Shetty, Arshad Warsi, Divya Dutta, Himani Shivpuri, Puru Raaj Kumar and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

The film has screenplay-dialogue by O P Dutta, music by Anu Malik, lyrics by Javed Akhtar and choreography by Saroj Khan.