Cargo teaser: Vikrant Massey plays Prahastha, a demon, in sci-fi film produced by Anurag Kashyap

Billed as 'India’s first ever spaceship sci-fi film', Cargo features Vikrant Massey as Prahastha, a demon, who works at the Post Death Transition services on a space station orbiting earth alongside his colleague (Shweta Tripathi).

Vikrant Massey in a still from Cargo. YouTube

The teaser brings to mind many space films like Interstellar, Gravity, and Star Wars. However, according to a press release, Cargo draws inspiration from Indian fables. It is a story about afterlife "woven with human emotions and Indian culture."

Arati Kadav, known for shorts like Time Machine and Raavan, has directed Cargo. She has produced the film alongside Shlok Sharma (director of Haraamkhor), Anurag Kashyap, and Navin Shetty. Vikramaditya Motwane served as the executive producer on the project.

Cargo will be screened at the Jio MAMI 21st Mumbai Film Festival on 18 and 19 October as part of the Spotlight section.

Here is the announcement

"It is the story of a spaceship that comes close to Earth every morning and waits for dead people. The spaceship doubles up as an immigration office for the dead," Kadav had previously told Mid-Day. She added Cargo was made on a tight budget — one millionth of Gravity. 

She revealed every shot was planned in detail and the team had to come up with methods to make the world of Cargo seem as authentic as possible. The design of the spaceship was inspired by the bio-mechanism of jelly fish. She also revealed the Cargo team did face some obstacles while filming inside the spaceship. As the ground of the spaceship would shake owing to its light weight, the team had to recreate a part of it for steady camerawork.

Cargo is expected to release in 2020.

Watch the trailer of Cargo here.