In an interview, producer Sravanthi Ravikishore talked about how his unit of Red, his upcoming film starring Ram, luckily escaped the pandemic while shooting in Italy in February, just days before the country turned into a coronavirus epicentre.
Director Kishore Tirumala had shot two romantic songs in the picturesque Dolomites with his lead cast members, Ram Pothineni and Malvika Sharma. In fact, the action thriller is the first Telugu film to be shot at the location.
“We also shot at scenic locales of Tuscany, Florence and Lake Garda on February 15 and 16. It was a great experience shooting there,” shares the film’s producer Ravikishore.
Exactly, a week later, however, Bergamo about one and half hour from Dolomites turned into an epicentre for the coronavirus. “When we returned to India, we were shocked to see how Italy was reeling as a result of the pandemic. All the great memories we had of shooting for our film have now been erased.
Whenever we discuss Italy, the destruction caused by coronavirus is what haunts us,” shares the producer, breathing a sigh of relief that the unit got back to India safely.
“A week later, on February 22, around twenty-two members from the British Sky team went to the Dolomites mountain ranges, and 17 of them tested positive.”
Then pointing out how he calls it luck, Ravikishore adds, “Sometimes, when you look back at a few incidents in life, you get philosophical; our Italy episode is one such for us.”
