'Coronavirus' trailer: Ram Gopal Varma's dreary take on the pandemic

The four-minute-long trailer is set inside a house, where one of the family members is coughing incessantly, thereby leading to panic among everyone around.

The trailer, flooded with trademark styles of RGV's films, including eerie and suspenseful background music and buzzing noise, plays out like a horror film.

The clip ends on a certain tragic note, details of which have not been revealed.

The Telugu-language film has been produced by RGV and directed by Agasthya Manju. It features Srikanth Iyengar in the lead role.

An official release date has not been revealed yet.

The film will be out on the ShreyasET app.

Announcing the movie, RGV wrote on Twitter, "Our actors and crew proved creativity cannot be locked down even in lockdown (sic)."

To note, RGV has passed controversial remarks about coronavirus recently.

Last month, when millions of Indians lighted diyas and candles to uplift the mood amid the COVID-19 crisis, RGV had the brilliant idea of lighting a cigarette (!).

Before that, he "joked" that he had contracted the coronavirus on April Fool's Day. The director received severe backlash for the insensitive remark.

Notably, movies based on pandemics have recently seen a steep rise in popularity.

For instance, Steven Soderbergh's 2011 pandemic movie Contagion saw a substantial surge in its online viewership, as COVID-19 engulfed the world.

Separately, reports suggest that many Bollywood filmmakers and producers have got the word "corona" registered for their upcoming titles. Some of these titles were "Corona Pyaar Hai" and "Deadly Corona".