UTV Motion Pictures refuted claims in a media article which appeared in a leading business daily dated August 21, 2012:

Here’s what the company had to say:

“This is with regard to the article which appeared today in Business Standard dated 21 August 2012 titled Companies break bank to buy Bollywood movie rights. The story talks about rumoured acquisition costs that production houses have put down for movies in the recent past. The figures and claims made in the article with regard to UTV Motion Pictures are completely erroneous and uncorroborated. Firstly, at UTV Motion Pictures we either produce or co-produce movies; we do not ‘acquire’ them. In the case of each of the movies mentioned as having been ‘acquired’ by us, we are either the sole owners or co-owners of the IPR in perpetuity. This is completely different from an acquisition model in which rights are held by a distributor for a limited term with limited or no IP ownership.

Himmatwala, Chennai Express and Rowdy Rathore are all co-productions with other production houses, and are not acquisitions. In addition to that, the numbers quoted as having been our ‘acquisition costs’ of these movies are nowhere close to our actual production costs, which are substantially lower.”