Even before the filming of Virus had begun, director Aashiq Abu said that Revathy was going to play the Kerala health minister. The film is based on the outbreak of the Nipah virus in Kerala last year and KK Shailaja teacher as health minister had a big role to play in dealing with the disease that was killing people. Now, the Virus team has put out a new character poster of Revathy on its page, appearing quite like Shailaja teacher with the glasses, the cotton Sari and even her grave expressions resembling the minister’s.
Aashiq had also revealed earlier that Rima Kallingal would be seen as Lini Puthussery, the nurse who was affected by the virus and passed away while taking care of the first patients that were affected, and Tovino Thomas would be seen as the Kozhikode collector UV Jose.
The film has an impressive list of stars in the cast including Asif Ali, Kunchacko Boban, Parvathy, Soubin Shahir, Dileesh Pothan, Rahman, Indrans, Remya Nambeesan, Madonna Sebastian, Sharafudheen, Sreenath Bhasi, Revathy, Joju George, Senthil Krishna, Basil Joseph, Sudeesh and Vettukili Prakash. The director is also reported to have roped in Fahadh Faasil to play a cameo role in it.
The trailer had come out a few days ago, with Kunchacko speaking about the disease terrorising the state and shots of people asking questions about it and how the medical community was handling the emergency. We also catch a glimpse of the panic among the people and the selfless work of the doctors and nurses who risked their own lives to look after patients.
The scripting for Virus has been done by Mushin Parari, Suhas and Sharfu. National Award winning cinematographer Rajeev Ravi has cranked the camera for this venture with Sushin Shyam composing the tunes and Saiju Sreedharan taking charge at the editing table. Aashiq Abu and Rima Kallingal are bankrolling the film under the banner OPM.
Virus was shot on a 52-day schedule and the post production has been happening for quite a while now. The film is to be released on June 7.
(Content provided by Digital Native)