The teaser of filmmaker Anubhav Sinha's upcoming film Bheed, starring Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, and Pankaj Kapur, was released on 3 March. Shot in black-and-white, the film depicts the plight of the migrant workers in India during the 2020 lockdown, when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak.
The teaser begins with some hard-hitting visuals of thousands of people travelling back to their homes, some on foot and some on train rooftops. The clip, backed by the voice of Manoj Bajpayee, reminds us of the 1947 Partition of India. However, the film talks about the social divide that occurred in India during the 2020 lockdown.
Sharing the film's teaser with his fans on social media, Rao wrote, "Hum kahaani bata rahe hai uss waqt ki jab batwara desh mein nahi, samaaj mein hua tha. (We are telling the story of a time when the nation wasn't divided, but the society was) #Bheed, a story of the darkest times, in black and white. Releasing in cinemas on 24th March 2023. #BheedInBlackAndWhite."
Here, take a look:
The first look pictures from the film reveal that Rao will essay the role of a police inspector, while Pednekar plays a doctor in the film. The socio-political drama has been shot across Lucknow, India.
Bheed is a film about "Our darkest times in black and white." Talking about his film, Sinha shared in a media statement, "Bheed is a story of the most perilous times which changed everything for humanity. The key objective of shooting the film in black and white was to showcase how the visuals of the social disparity during India’s Lockdown were strikingly similar to what people went through during the 1947 India Partition. This story is about people whose lives changed in a snap and the colours from their lives were lost when the border was drawn within the country."
Bheed is jointly produced by Sinha and Bhushan Kumar and will hit the big screens on 24 March, the day when the lockdown was first announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India.