Featured Image Credit: Tyler Olson / Alamy. 20th Century Studios.
Topics: Film and TV, News, Entertainment
Rachel Lang
Topics: Film and TV, News, Entertainment
A man has died of a heart attack midway through a screening of James Cameron’s new film Avatar: The Way of Water.
The man's death occurred in a Kakinada movie theatre, in southern Andhra Pradesh, India.
The deceased has now been identified as Lakshmireddy Srinu, who had attended the film with his younger brother when he collapsed.
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He was rushed to nearby Peddapuram Government Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors.
Fortis Hospital director Dr Sanjeev Gera told the Hindustan Times that the excitement of the long-anticipated follow-up film to Cameron's 2009 blockbuster Avatar may have contributed to Srinu's death.
"Because of stress, increase in blood pressure like what happened in this case, arteries of the heart could have ruptured and that can cause sudden cardiac arrest," Dr Gera said.
Aster CMI Hospital cardiologist Dr Pradeep Kumar D agreed with Dr Gera's conclusion.
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"This may be due to a plaque rupture in the coronaries or triggering of an arrhythmia due to excitement," he said, as per the Hindustan Times.
"These kinds of deaths do happen during exciting matches/emotional situations."
While the excitement of seeing the long-anticipated film may have contributed to Srinu's symptoms, the cardiologist clarified that it wasn't the movie on its own that killed him.
Dr Kumar added: "The movie per se is unlikely to have caused the death."
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Dying midway through a Cameron film might be an odd way to go, but believe it or not, Srinu is not the first person to die during an Avatar screening.
As per Wion News, a 42-year-old man in Taiwan died watching the original Avatar movie back in 2010.
He also died of a heart attack.
While both men have died from the same health issue, it is worth noting that Srinu's Taiwanese counterpart had a history of high blood pressure.
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Doctors also reported that the 'over-excitement from watching the movie' triggered his symptoms.
As well as setting the scene for two deaths, another unusual phenomenon hit Avatar fans shortly after the movie was released back in 2009.
Some audiences claimed they were left feeling blue.
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According to a report from CNN in 2010, fans of the flick grew depressed because they longed to visit the fictional Pandora themselves but realised that could never happen.
A fan website set up an online forum to support those who were left feeling depressed.
It featured a thread entitled: 'Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible', which racked up more than 1,000 posts.
Sad times indeed.