Coming soon, a Gujarati movie on COVID-19 by Prashant Thakor

PTI, Apr 28, 2020, 12:26 PM IST

Ahmedabad: Inspired by numerous real-life stories surrounding the battle against coronavirus, a filmmaker duo from Gujarat has decided to make a movie on how the pandemic affected people and the state machinery’s response to the unprecedented lockdown.

Instead of a cliched storyline of a hero fighting the evil forces, the Gujarati movie will have multiple stories depicting fear, hope, determination, and many different colors of life that have emerged during the epidemic, director Mahesh Patel told PTI.

Patel and his business partner Dipak Soni own the Surat-based Kesar-Bhavani Film Productions, a company under whose banner the film will be made.

While the budget has not yet been finalized, Patel has already started working on the script the film, titled ‘Corona No Kaher’ (meaning coronavirus wreaking havoc).

“So many things are happening around us due to the coronavirus – from people getting confined to their homes to migrants agitating due to the lockdown. We are also seeing how police personnel and doctors are putting their own lives at risk to save people. Thus, we both decided to make a movie on this subject,” Patel said.

Soni said the film’s shooting will start once the lockdown comes to an end and things get normal.

“Though we have released a working poster of the movie and finalized some crew, many things are still in the pipeline. The film would also have characters portraying the Gujarat chief minister and the state director general of police, as they did a commendable job in such a situation,” Soni said.

The movie will have stories on migrant workers stuck in cities, the public’s fear and struggles during the lockdown, and how police personnel, doctors, and nurses fought all odds to save people’s lives, Patel said.

“We will also highlight the good work of NGOs and government in helping and feeding the poor. I have also planned to highlight how mistakes of some persons triggered the spread of the virus,” he said.

“Overall, this will be a movie about how everyone came together to fight the coronavirus. We want to give a message of unity,” Patel added.

This will be the second major film of the producer-director duo. In 2016, they made a movie titled ‘Power of Patidar’, on Hardik Patel who spearheaded an agitation for reservation some years back.

However, the film never got released as the censor board denied permission.