UTV signs Delhi Belly writer - Akshat Verma for his directorial venture The studio house to produce Akshat’s first film

Mumbai, October 7 2011: Following the stupendous success of Delhi Belly, UTV Motion Pictures will be producing Akshat Verma’s first directorial venture.

Delhi based Akshat was the writer of Delhi Belly, produced by Aamir Khan Productions and UTV Motion Pictures. With a fantastic story play coupled with entertaining dialogues, Delhi Belly emerged as an instant cult hit which opens doors for a whole new genre of cinema.

UTV will now be taking the association forward with Akshat’s directorial debut. The film will be a comic thriller and being scripted by Akshat himself.

Speaking on associating with Akshat, Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures, ““As a studio, we have always believed in backing upcoming talent who have the potential to bring entertaining cinema to audiences. The fantastic script written by Akshat was undoubtedly one of the key reasons behind the success of Delhi Belly and judging by his concept and vision, we believe he'll write and direct a superb film"

Akshat Verma said, "Working with UTV on Delhi Belly was a fantastic experience for me. To have a major studio get behind your film completely enables you to do your best work - I'm inspired and excited to be working with UTV again on my next film."

About UTV Motion Pictures: The Motion Pictures division of UTV, established in 2004, is an integrated studio model in the Indian film industry as well as in the whole of South Asia region. The activities of the studio span across creative development, production, marketing, distribution, licensing, merchandising and syndication of films worldwide. UTV has a library of over 50 films including Hindi, Regional, Animation and International Productions. The last decade in Indian cinema has seen UTV delivering some of the most iconic films including , Rang De Basanti, , A Wednesday, Dev D, Khosla Ka Ghosla, The Namesake, Life in a Metro, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, and more recently Raajneeti, Udaan and Peepli [Live]. Over the years, UTV has worked with some of the most eminent talent in the industry like Aamir Khan, Karan Johar, Mira Nair, M. Night Shyamalan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Prakash Jha, , Farah Khan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Madhur Bhandarkar, Anurag Basu and Shyam Benegal, while backing new talent like Neeraj Pandey, Raj Kumar Gupta, Nishikant Kamat, Dibakar Banerjee, Vikramaditya Motwane, Amit Trivedi and many others.

UTV opened the year 2011 on a strong note with the breakout hit , critically acclaimed Dhobi Ghat and Delhi Belly, which has emerged an instant cult hit opening doors for a whole new genre of cinema and has an impressive slate of movies lined up for the

rest of the year with My Friend Pinto, Barfii, , Ghanchakkar, Joker, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and many more.

For further information, please contact: Aishwarya Gurjar: 96198 47047 Jyotika Ahuja: 96191 22379