New Delhi: ‘The Vaccine War’, the film touted to showcase India’s leadership and ‘vishwaguru’role during the Covid-19 outbreak released in theatres about two months ago but the poor turnout at multiplexes has prompted the film promoters for an early OTT debut of the film.
Helmed by acclaimed director Vivek Agnihotri, the film is set to release on the OTT platform – Disney + Hotstar on November 24. The film produced by Agnihotri’s wife Pallavi Joshi had opened in theatres on September 28. It showed India’s robust Covid-19 vaccination campaign not just domestically but also how it’s helping hand to Western as well as Southern African countries helped save many lives here & abroad.
The movie stars Nana Patekar, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Raima Sen & others in lead roles.
The filmmakers announced the digital release of the movie on Disney+ Hotstar on November 24. The Vaccine War, directed by Vivek Agnihotri and produced by Pallavi Joshi and I am Buddha Productions will release on Disney+Hotstar OTT platform.
Vivek Agnihotri’s directorial was expected to have big opening followed by packed theatres, owing to its nationalist pitch but it could neither lure more audience to theatres nor could it generate enough mouth-to-mouth publicity. The movie, despite a big hype before release, failed miserably at the Box office.
Plot of the movie
The movie depicts the promptness & resilience of Indian scientists during Covid-19 outbreak and how they were instrumental in developing an indigenous vaccine within months of deadly pandemic.
Ahead of movie’s OTT debut, director Vivek Agnihotri said, “The unsung heroes are truly the ones who got us through this war, a war against a virus that was so difficult to understand. This movie for me is a tribute to all these heroes and I am so glad The Vaccine War coming to Disney+ Hotstar as viewers across the world will come to know the lengths our doctors went to, to find this vaccine.”
Anupam Kher, one of the lead actors expressed happiness over the movie of unsung heroes reaching hinterland of India and those thousands of citizens with no access to theatres & multiplexes.
He said that the movie was about India’s grit, fight, struggle against the pandemic and how the nation not only kept itself afloat but gave hope to many other others to fight the pandemic with motivation.
About the star cast
Nana Patekar portrayed Dr Balram Bhargava, the Director General of ICMR on screen while Pallavi Joshi played the role of Dr Priya Abraham, director of ICMR- National Institute of Virology. Notably, these are the two top-notch scientists who steered India’s vaccination program, in active co-ordination with batch of India’s leading scientists & virologists.
