On Tuesday (12 September), the much-awaited trailer of Vivek Agnihotri’s directed upcoming film ‘The Vaccine War’ was released on the official YouTube channel of Pen Movies and ‘I Am Buddha’. The film features Nana Patekar, Anupam Kher, Sapthami Gowda, Raima Sen, and Pallavi Joshi as the lead characters. Touted as ‘India’s first bio-science film, it will be released on 28 September.
Helmed by Vivek Agnihotri, the film is produced by Pallavi Joshi at I Am Buddha and it will be released in multiple languages. ‘The Vaccine War’ will be based on the inspirational story of Indian scientists and how they developed India’s first indigenous vaccine in record time defying all odds that were stacked against it.
The film will focus on the development of the BBV152 vaccine, which was named Covaxin. It was developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)- National Institute of Virology, Pune.
With dialogues like – “India can’t do it” and emphatically highlighting reports like “Foreign vaccines: The Need of a modern India”, the film promises to tackle the negative media campaigns and propaganda that the Indian scientific communities had to face during the trials and tribulations of making the vaccine.
In the trailer, Nana Patekar shines as the head of the scientistic team developing the indigenous COVID-19 vaccine while Anupam Kher portrays the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As per the trailer, Raima Sen is playing the antagonistic role of a journalist seemingly representing the group that ran smear campaign against the Indian vaccine while parallelly routing for foreign vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna. The trailer focuses on the immense contribution of Women scientists in the face of hardships.
The trailer has neatly blended historical references to Mahabharata to talk about the struggle and how the scientists had a steadfast focus on developing efficient vaccines to safeguard humanity.
Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri who received a great response for his film ‘The Kashmir Files’ has been actively promoting his upcoming film as ‘India’s first bio-science film’. This involves screening abroad and launching the first song of the film – ‘Shristhi se pehele’, at Times Square which finds a good portion in the film’s trailer.