WWW

WWW: Who Where Why is a 2021 Telugu thriller told entirely on computer screens, written, directed and shot by the cinematographer K. V. Guhan and produced by Ravi Prasad Raju Datla under Ramantra Creations, presented by D. Suresh Babu. Adith Arun and Shivani Rajashekar play the leads, with Satyam Rajesh and Priyadarshi in support. Marketed as Telugu cinema’s first computer-screen film, it premiered on SonyLIV on 24 December 2021.

What the story is about

Vishwa, Ashraf, Sadha and Christy are friends living in different Indian cities who stay in touch over video calls, and who make money from cybercrime. Mitra, a painter, moves in with Christy as her flatmate, and when Vishwa helps her brother find a job, the two become friends. She tells him how her father lost his job after being wrongly blamed for erasing important data; Vishwa quietly realises he was the one responsible.

Vishwa falls for Mitra and proposes, and she accepts, but just as they are about to meet, the lockdown cancels all flights. They promise to stay on a video call until they can be together. Then a stranger breaks into Mitra and Christy’s flat, and Vishwa, watching helplessly through the screen, is forced to do whatever the intruder demands, starting with telling Mitra who he really is.

Cast and crew

• Adith Arun as Vishwa
• Shivani Rajashekar as Mitra
• Sandeep Bhardwaj as Sandeep
• Riyaz Khan as Khan, a cyber-security officer
• Satyam Rajesh as Sada
• Priyadarshi as Ashraf
• Divya Sripada as Christy

Writer, director and cinematographer: K. V. Guhan. Producer: Ravi Prasad Raju Datla (Ramantra Creations). Music: Simon K. King, released by Aditya Music. Runtime: 103 minutes.

Making the film

The film was shot in screen-life format in Hyderabad and Chennai during the COVID-19 lockdown and completed in January 2021. It was partly reshot in Tamil, with Sathish and Rajkumar replacing Satyam Rajesh and Priyadarshi.

Reviews

Critics were split. Prakash Pecheti of Telangana Today called it “an engaging tale” with a taut screenplay, and Kiran Kumar Thanjavur of News18 Telugu called it a “must-watch”. Sakshi Post praised both leads. On the other side, Thadhagath Pathi of the Times of India gave it 2.5 out of 5 and called it “a major let-down”, and Eenadu‘s critic felt it failed to impress beyond a few good sequences.

Where to watch WWW

WWW was released directly on SonyLIV on 24 December 2021, according to Wikipedia. We have not checked a current SonyLIV listing, so availability may differ.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on WWW and the reviews it cites, linked above; our own cast and crew records.