Actor-producer Riteish Deshmukh announced that he will be making his debut as a director with a Marathi movie titled Ved.

The actor took to social media to announce his directorial debut, which will also mark wife Genelia Deshmukh’s foray into Marathi cinema. Besides her, the film stars actor Jiya Shankar. “After being in front of the camera for 20 years, I take a big leap to stand behind it for the first time. As I direct my first Marathi film, I humbly ask you [to] be a part of this journey, be a part of this madness,” Riteish wrote. 

Genelia, who returns to acting after a decade, shared a series of posts on Instagram, expressing her excitement for the film. She said after acting in Bollywood and South movies, she wanted to feature in a Marathi film. “Being born in Maharashtra, my heart yearned to do a film in Marathi for years and was hoping there would be a script where I could just say this is it... And then this happened,” she said, sharing a behind-the-scene clip from the sets of Ved. 

“Coming back to acting after 10 long years and being part of a dream where my husband Riteish Deshmukh directs for the first time and I get to share space with a beautiful co-actor Jiya Shankar who gets introduced under our production house MFC,” said the actor who has acted with Riteish in Tujhe Meri Kasam (2003), Masti (2004) and Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya (2012). Noted musician duo Ajay-Atul will score the music for the film, which is set to release on August 12, 2022. 

Riteish is also set to make his digital debut with a quirky coming-of-age Netflix film Plan A Plan B and will also feature in filmmaker Sanjay Gupta’s home production movie Visfot.