Akshay Bhatia is a Georgia-born, Atlanta-based filmmaker. He recently served as Francis Ford Coppola's personal assistant and directorial apprentice on Megalopolis, where he followed the project from pre-production all the way through post-production and premiere. During the shoot, he aided in directing and writing scenes for the film, and apprenticed under Roman Coppola, director of the second unit, working most frequently with him to help rehearse the many practical special effects in the film. He also collaborated with Mike Figgis, director of Leaving Las Vegas, on MegaDoc, the behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Megalopolis. Along with the ongoing festival tour of his latest short film as director, titled The Preakness, starring Jeffrey Pierce of The Last Of Us fame, with music by electronic music legend Dan Deacon, Bhatia is in development on his debut feature, as well as serving as producer on an untitled zombie film directed by renowned film critic Scout Tafoya and executive produced by Mark Pellington, director of The Mothman Prophecies and Arlington Road.