SET TO STUN

With its staggering budget, huge international crew and a stellar cast, Chinese fantasy epic Asura has ambitions to rival any Hollywood blockbuster, Xu Fan reports.

With a staggering budget of 750 million yuan ($113.5 million) and an international crew of 1,800 industry professionals gathered from 35 countries, the upcoming fantasy epic Asura is now the most hotly anticipated blockbuster of China's competitive summer season.

On Twitter-like Sina Weibo, a barometer for popularity, posts about the film had racked up 390 million views by Tuesday. Nearly 1,800 articles on public WeChat accounts, a mainstream news medium, had garnered 1.22 million clicks in the past three months.