Siddharth Roy Kapur has signed director Vinil Mathew and screenwriter Sudip Sharma for his next film to be produced under the Roy Kapur Films banner.

Vinil Mathew is a renowned ad filmmaker who made his feature film debut with the acclaimed new-age romance, Hasee Toh Phasee. Sudip Sharma is the acclaimed writer of NH10 and Udta Punjab, and is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost screenwriters in the country.

Siddharth Roy Kapur confirmed the news, `Yes, we will be collaborating with Vinil and Sudip on a unique and exciting subject that our team has been developing for many months. The film is based on true events involving piracy on the Somalian high seas and is told through the eyes of a young Indian merchant navy officer, who has to navigate through unimaginably perilous circumstances, while dealing with huge personal challenges. It is a thrilling, dramatic and emotional journey, and we couldn't have asked for a better director than Vinil Mathew to tell this story. Vinil's work in advertising is amongst the most accomplished I have ever seen. He has a unique ability to move you emotionally and to draw you into a narrative within the span of less than a minute. To have Sudip on board as screenwriter for the film is a huge advantage, as he unfailingly creates memorable characters, inhabits them in authentic worlds, and in the process creates strong conflicts and riveting drama.`

When Siddharth first heard the true story of merchant navy officer Audumbar Bhoi whose ship and crew was attacked by Somalian pirates, he was gripped and immediately felt that this was an incredibly unique and above all, an inspiring human story that needed to be told on the big screen.

Vinil said, `I have immense respect for Siddharth and his creative vision which is evident in the films he has produced over the past decade. I have been looking forward to working with him and when Siddharth shared this story with me, I instinctively knew I had to be associated with the film as it had all the right ingredients of emotion, drama and thrill. I am thrilled about our collaboration and I'm sure it will be a great experience. We hope to give the audiences a truly special film."

Sudip said `I am normally wary of writing commissioned scripts for producers, but Sid gives you a lot of creative freedom and lets you do your thing. I developed a film for Disney when Sid was there, and thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with him creatively. We've been meaning to work again with each other since, and when he pitched this story to me, I just jumped at it because it has the potential to be a tense hostage drama cum survival story, and lets you explore Somalia and maritime piracy, a world hitherto unseen in Hindi films.`

Over the past few months, Vinil and Sudip have conducted intensive research on the Indian merchant navy life, as well as on the Somali piracy problem and its impact on the many Indian families that have been affected by it.

It is anticipated that the film will go on the floors in the second half of 2018.

Roy Kapur Films has various other noteworthy film projects in the pipeline, including a biopic on Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space, written by Anjum Rajabali and to be directed by Mahesh Mathai; Dangal director Nitesh Tiwari's next film, based on the book `How I Braved Anu Aunty and Co-Founded a Million Dollar Company", Shubh Mangal Savdhaan director RS Prasanna's next film, and a film based on the true story of Vijendra Singh Rathore, the heroic Alwar-based truck driver who found his wife after a 19 month-long search in the aftermath of the Uttarakhand flash floods.

In addition to producing films, Roy Kapur Films has marked its foray into digital media by entering into a landmark multi-year partnership with Reliance Jio to produce original video content including digital series and Made-for-Jio films for millions of Jio subscribers across India.

Siddharth Roy Kapur is the eminent producer of several critically acclaimed and commercially successful films like Dangal, ABCD2, Haider, Barfi and Kai Po Che. He believes in setting new benchmarks with every project he backs. He has founded his own production company Roy Kapur Films earlier this year after a long and successful stint at Disney and UTV. He is also the President of the Producers Guild of India and was recently named as one of Variety's Top 500 influential people in entertainment globally, amongst only 12 Indians to feature on this list.