'Coronavirus' trailer: Ram Gopal Varma's dreary take on the pandemic
If there is one person you can expect to come up (quickly) with a dreary take on a situation that has already caused distress all across the globe, it has to be Ram Gopal Varma. The filmmaker has announced a new movie titled Coronavirus, focusing on the impact of the pandemic on a family. The film was shot indoors during the lockdown.
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)."
While RGV and others associated with the project are advertising the upcoming movie as the "World's first film on Coronavirus," that is not really the case. In fact, Canada-based filmmaker Mostafa Keshvari's Corona, based on the COVID-19 pandemic, was completed last month.
Here is the CORONAVIRUS film trailer..The story is set in a LOCKDOWN and it has been SHOT during LOCKDOWN ..Wanted to prove no one can stop our work whether it’s GOD or CORONA @shreyaset https://t.co/fun1Ed36Sn
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) May 26, 2020
When the rest of film people were SWEEPING FLOORS, COOKING FOOD ,WASHING UTENSILS , DRYING CLOTHES etc etc I MADE A FILM 💪💪💪 #CORONAVIRUSFILM https://t.co/fun1EdkIgX pic.twitter.com/i8ME1eyP4h
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) May 27, 2020
THANKS SARKAAAAR! ..I couldn’t just let a chungoo mungoo VIRUS to LOCK me DOWN https://t.co/5ru98HO4eE
— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) May 27, 2020
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".
The novel coronavirus pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 352,516 and infected over 57 lakh around the world. Across India, the deadly disease has killed 4,346 and sickened more than 1.5 lakh.
