Vivek Agnihotri: 'The Badshahs and Kings of Bollywood will never invest even 10 paisa in a film like The Vaccine War'

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri is gearing up for his next directorial venture The Vaccine War. In an interview with DNA, he spoke bluntly about the finances of the film and stated, “There are so many people whose films do business of Rs 1000 crore, all the producers, directors, superstars, the badshahs and kings of Bollywood. These people will never even invest 10 paisa in a film like this.”

He added, “My idea was to use our money to invest in those kinds of films that can help build a new filmmaking tradition and a new independent cinema.”

On how India created the safest vaccine in the world 

Today, India has created the safest vaccine in the world and created such monopoly. This vaccine is the biggest scientific achievement in the history of India. And our women scientists have created it. These people talk sweet about women empowerment in interviews but when it comes to this subject, they would say ‘who will watch a film on vaccines, nobody watches women oriented films today.’ But we did it. Pallavi and I invested money and two years of our life in it. This is what we are doing.

Agnihotri, who made The Kashmir Files, recently spoke to Times Now too about the ambition to make a film on The Mahabharata. The filmmaker said, “I don’t know why everybody is saying I am making Mahabharat so I am seriously considering why not. I have spent all my life reading, researching, analysing, and incorporating my own life, in my speeches.”

He added, “But I want to make it like mythology. If I have to make it, I will make it like history. Others are making something for the box office and I am going to make it for the people. Secondly, they made it to glorify Arjun, Bheem, and others. For me, Mahabharat is what is dharma VS Adharma.”