Michael Radford has given his nod to directing Taj, a movie that tells the story of 17th century Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his favourite queen Mumtaz Mahal for whom he built the Taj Mahal [Images].

Radford will be helming the pic from a script penned by Krishna Shan, reports Variety.

On board as producers are Michael A Simpson and Judy Cairo along with Ken Atchity and Ch-Li Wong.

Radford, who has helmed Merchant of Venice and Il Postino will be rekindling his ties with India with Taj. He was born in New Delhi and this will be first movie he will shoot here.

A budget of 25 million dollars has been set for the pic, which will start shooting in September this year.