A R Rahman The Legend

The 19th Step


Director - Bharatbala

Producer - Manas Malhotra, Bharatbala [Bharatbala Productions]

Script - M.T.Vasudevan Nair


- The 19th Step is the only Indian film to have ever been selected for the prestigious Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF).

- The 19th Step will be the first martial art film from India. It will also be the first Indo-Japanese co-production of its kind. It is a film about one culture's journey into the other, telling a universal story aimed a larger worldwide audience, tracing the origins of the martial arts to Kalarippayattu, a fighting style practiced in Kerala in Southern India. Kerala and Japan both have highly evolved forms of martial arts, literature and performing arts; and are uniquely linked through similar cultural practices. The 19th Step will be the first film to explore this cultural linkage.

- Kenji, a bloodthirsty Samurai warrior haunted by the ghosts of his turbulent past, travels to India seeking the infinite power of the ancient martial art Kalarippayattu, but ends up acquiring powers far greater & beyond the martial art’s 18 steps of learning – into the realms of a mystical 19thStep.