“Does Not Have…”: Vivek Agnihotri Opens Up About Lacklustre Box Office Performance Of ‘The Vaccine War’
Vivek Agnihotri recently said that ‘The Vaccine War’ has recovered its budget through digital and satellite rights.
Vivek Agnihotri, who delivered a blockbuster in 2022 with ‘The Kashmir Files’, did not enjoy the same level of success this year as his latest directorial venture ‘The Vaccine War’ has been performing poorly at the box office. While ‘The Kashmir Files’ made over Rs 200 crore, ‘The Vaccine War’ is struggling to mint money, and the film has not been able to cross the Rs 10 crore mark even six days after its theatrical release. The new Hindi movie, which hit theatres on September 28 alongside ‘Fukrey 3’, has only collected Rs 7.8 crore.
‘The Vaccine War’, which has garnered critical acclaim, focuses on how India’s scientists fought against all odds to create the country’s first indigenous vaccine against the COVID-19.
In a recent interaction with DNA, Vivek Agnihotri said that he anticipated this response and is not worried as the film was made on a low budget.
Talking about the praise that the film has received from critics and fans alike, Vivek Agnihotri said, “There is a lot of critical acclaim. Many critics have given the film four stars. So that’s great news and I am very happy about that. But for me the most important is how the people are receiving in theatres. 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.”
He 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.”
Vivek Agnihotri also said that the film will grow even if the growth is slow. “It will spread very slowly when families watch it, when kids appreciate it. It will have a slow growth but one thing I know is that this film will have a very strong impact on whoever watches it,” he added.
The filmmaker said that he made ‘The Vaccine War’ at a budget of Rs 10 crore, even lower than ‘The Kashmir Files’, which was made on a budget of Rs 15 crore.
He said, “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.”
Vivek Agnihotri further stated, “If you look at it financially, the film already recovered its costs through digital and satellite rights.”
‘The Vaccine War’ stars Nana Patekar, Pallavi Joshi, Raima Sen, Sapthami Gowda, Girija Oak, Nivedita Bhattacharya, and Anupam Kher.
