Vivek Agnihotri claims he knew The Vaccine War will have low collections: 'Doesn't have political element'

Director Vivek Agnihotri’s medical drama, The Vaccine War hit the silver screens on 28 September this year. The film believed to be made on a budget of around Rs 10 crore, has failed to mint the same amount at the Indian box office. It has only managed to make a total of around Rs 7 crore till now in the domestic market. Talking about the same during a recent conversation with DNA, the filmmaker claimed that he was well aware that The Vaccine War would not be able to become a massive hit like The Kashmir Files.

According to Vivek Agnihotri, his movie is missing a crucial ingredient to becoming successful – politics. Meanwhile, the filmmaker added that he has received critical acclaim, but he gives more weightage to the audience turnout above anything else. Vivek Agnihotri further added that The Vaccine War is a small film and they always knew that it would grow with word of mouth, something that is happening now.

He said, “This is a small film and we always knew that this will grow with word of mouth and now it is, which is a positive sign.”

The filmmaker added, “It will be unrealistic on my part to assume that this will grow like The Kashmir Files because that film had reached the collective conscience of every person from top to the bottom. This is a science film on vaccines. Honestly, there shouldn’t have been a feature film on this. But we made it because we felt this story needed to be told. But this film does not have that politics. It is a very straightforward, positive, beautiful film. This is a different genre.”

Nana Patekar Reduced His Fee For The Vaccine War

In the meantime, the protagonist of the film, Nana Patekar told Aaj Tak that Vivek Agnihotri approached him with the script for the film and inquired about his fees. The actor added that he decided to lower his fee for the movie by 80 per cent. Nana Patekar further disclosed that several people warned the filmmaker that the drama would not be completed if he starred in it.

He was quoted saying, “Since I knew its scope is not as much, we made this film in Rs 10 crore. We could have made it bigger, kept the budget at Rs 50 crore. But we cut costs and thankfully Nana cut down heavily on his fees. Many came without accepting money for it, which is how we were able to make it for Rs 10 crore. So, I knew that even if it comes to the worst, it will recover that much money at the box office.”

All About The Vaccine War

With Raima Sen, Anupam Kher, Girija Oak, Nivedita Bhattacharya, Sapthami Gowda and Mohan Kapur playing crucial roles, The Vaccine War focuses on the development of Covaxin during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The movie tells the tale of scientists involved in the creation of the vaccine.

Produced by the banner I Am Buddha Production, the music for the drama has been rendered by Rohit Sharma, Vanraj Bhatia, Swapnil Bandodkar and Shryea Kaul. While Shankh Rajadhyaksha is the head of the editing department, Udaysingh Mohite has looked after the camera work for the movie. The venture reached the audience in several languages including Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.