When Ram's Red team shot two songs in Italy without realising coronavirus threat

Producer Sravanthi Ravikishore has revealed that his team shot two songs of Ram Pothineni's upcoming movie Red in Italy without realising coronavirus threat. They came to know about it after returning to India.

Ram Pothineni, Malvika Sharma, and few other members of Red were at the picturesque Dolomite in Italy in February to shoot two romantic songs of the action thriller. "We also shot at scenic locales of Tuscany, Florence and Lake Garda on February 15 and 16. It was a great experience shooting there," Ravikishore told Deccan Cronicle.

According to the team, Red is the first Telugu film to be shot at the location. A week after returning, the film unit of Red was shocked to learn that Bergamo, which about one and half hours from the Dolomites, had become an epicentre for the coronavirus. They breathed a sigh of relief for getting back to India safely.

Sravanthi Ravikishore said, "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 u."

The producer added, "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. Sometimes, when you look back at a few incidents in life, you get philosophical; our Italy episode is one such for us."

Directed by Kishore Tirumala, Red is an official remake of the 2019 Tamil-language film Thadam. This action thriller film is about two lookalike men living in the same city. One of them attacks a man and leaves him dead and investigation leads the cops to capturing the two lookalikes. How they find out which one among the two committed the murder forms the crux of the movie..

Ram Pothineni is playing double roles in Red, while Nivetha Pethuraj, Malvika Sharma and Amritha Aiyer essay the female leads. It was set for theatrical release on April 9, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was rumoured that the movie would directly hit over-the-top media service (OTT), but Ram denied it and confirmed that the film would be released in cinemas only.