New Birmingham Action Film to Kick Off Midlands Cinematic Universe
If you search for Venomous Viper on social media, you’ll find a 1min 50sec teaser that has accrued over two million views. Starring Mandi Sidhu, a London-born actress who has starred in several Bollywood productions including Love Aaj Kal and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the short teaser shows the titular assassin prepare for her latest target.
It's a combination of creator Baz Kannan’s British and Asian heritages. The music, put together by Tharun Musicals, takes influence from Bollywood soundtracks, while the visuals, handled by Baz himself in a director, producer and VFX role, invoke the bright, superhero franchises that have dominated the big screen in recent years.
This is no accident. Speaking to Baz, he says that this is the start of his own Kannan Cinematic Universe (KCU). Having worked in post-production, both as an editor and a VFX artist – Baz handled effects work for Rory Rawson’s Letters From Space, nominated at the 2025 Midlands Movies Awards – he tried his hand at producing and directing his own work, starting with fan-films based within the Marvel Universe.
“I love Marvel, so wanted to try and see how far I can go with visual effects,” he says. “Then, I wanted to try and build a franchise of my own.”
While Marvel was the initial inspiration for Baz starting the journey, the ideas for Venomous Viper came from closer to home. “The first idea came from a series of personal experiences I had during the pandemic,” he explains. “We couldn’t go out and I ended up getting involved with online ‘self-improvement’ groups.”
He says that he realised quickly that these weren’t altruistic schemes, but a way for so-called life coaches to financially exploit people.
“They were exploiting the insecurities of men and perpetuating, toxic masculinity, ideas which contributed to issues like misogyny. It made me wonder, what if there was a story about someone who had been negatively affected by these ideologies. Someone who had been hurt by these Andrew Tate-style influencers, and who then fights back against that movement.”
To this dark, very real scenario, Baz explains that he added inspiration from video games, such as Hitman and Watch Dogs, to provide the action orientated story and the hacking elements. “It was pairing this idea of a female hitwoman, an Asian Agent 47, and putting them against that movement. A fight for justice.”
The teaser was shot in Birmingham and Baz hopes it will drive interest in funding the subsequent short and feature length versions of the story, with a view to start filming these in 2026 when funding is secured.
Baz says that having Mandi on-board and enthusiastic about the project is helping to drive conversations around the film, as will the focus on Asian culture, Birmingham and West Midlands in general. “I feel like the Midlands is underrepresented in mainstream films, and it would be great to pull together a local crew to make this happen. With a project this ambitious, any help is always appreciated!”
Watch the teaser trailer above and follow the progress of the film on social media at https://www.instagram.com/VenomousViperOfficial
Matthew Tilt
