Telugu techies’ rib-tickling video on coronavirus goes viral

HYDERABAD: A few Telugu youth in New York and New Jersey — the hotbed of coronavirus outbreak in the US — created a short musical video to highlight the difficulties being faced by people due the pandemic. The techies use their comic timing to drive home the need to stay indoors and maintain personal hygiene.
Directed by Sai Swaroop Mysore, a systems engineer based in New Jersey, the cast includes him along with fellow techies Kalyan Reddy Mungi, Anil Reddy Mannem, Varun Reddy and Sampath Durgavarapu.The techies, all originally from Hyderabad, studied at The University of Missouri. The video ‘Careful Corona Aagaya’ in Telugu is shot in Piscataway city of New Jersey state.
“I first thought of making this video when I got back to the US from my trip to India in March. I was lucky enough to be back as the lockdown was announced four days after my travel. The situation was not yet as intense and that’s when we all met and decided to make the video,” Sai Swaroop said, adding the idea was to make Telugus understand the seriousness of an issue through a light-hearted video.
The 5 minute 15 second-musical explains conditions that many people in the US are experiencing. It shows among other things how people were over sanitising; how everyone coming from out of town was being treated and how not following precautions could turn on into a victim of Covid-19. “All precautions are depicted following WHO’s guidelines,” he added. There was no commercial aspect to the film that has generated 14k views on an online video sharing platform.
A part of the lyrics: “Careful corona aagaya/deshaalanu dandayatra chesinaa/don’t panic neeku raakundaa/safety chusukoo sodaraa” (Careful corona has come/ spreading rapidly across the world/don’t panic you won’t catch it/ friend think of your safety).
Kalyan Reddy Mungi said: “With all rumours and superstitions floating around social media to get rid of virus, we just wanted to try and do our bit to reach at least some people in a fun way about real precautions.”