Vivek Agnihotri speaks to mid-day.com about agenda in filmmaking, narrating untold stories of India, box office impact, his last release The Vaccine War
Vivek Agnihotri
Director Vivek Agnihotri's 2022 film 'The Kashmir Files' sure surprised everyone with its performance at the box office. The film which is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus connected with the masses. Therefore, the next film from Agnihotri, titled 'The Vaccine War' was among the anticipated movie lists. While it could recreate the The Kashmir Files's box office success, the filmmaker says that he has been highly appreciated by the people who have seen the film. As the film is now streaming on Disney+Hotstar, Vivek Agnihotri opens up about the research behind the film, it's impact and what the success of The Kashmir Files has taught him:
Excerpts from the interview:
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Your last two films relied a lot on research work. How involved are you in the research process of your films and how long did the research on The Vaccine War take? Was consolidating the data a task?
I'm by nature and by DNA, a researcher. I have studied how to do research, and practiced it for a long time, and even if I'm not making films, I keep doing research all the time. So obviously, as a passion and as my motivation, I am always involved in research from the top. I am the one who sets standards, parameters, methodology, sampling, and all those kinds of things. When it comes to interviews of the key people, I do it myself, but the rest of the interviews, like their
secondary and tertiary level, are done by my team. I see each and every interview, all the transcripts, read, and edit - so I'm hands-on, 24/7 involved in that process. We have a brilliant team along with commissioned researchers who we have 100% trust and confidence in, and who are experts in their fields. As far as The Vaccine War was concerned, it was a science domain film- we may have a science background, but we are not scientists, so it was important for us to
ensure the authenticity of everything. We collaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Virology, and the BSL Lab in Pune, and we worked with these top scientists very closely to research. We had some three different documents - one of 2000 pages, another of 3000 pages, and the last one of seven and a half thousand pages. The documents had lots of data and material which we got from ICMR and other places. We had one complete file of media, how the media spoke about it. I always worked with raw data and never asked any assistant to edit it. I then go somewhere for a month or so and pick up the data, filter it, edit it, and pick up whatever is relevant to the film. From there, I start working on the screenplay process.
The Kashmir Files was a huge success. What did you personally learn from that experience? And did you understand anything about the people's viewing habits in our country?
"Whatever I have learned through experience in this profession, I feel that any film that works on the principle that the audience is smarter than me finds its audience. I work very closely with communities and groups and people, and I try to speak their language. Our films are realistic, and my audience knows that the film I will give them, with that they are going to discover new truths and lots of things are going to be revealed to them, that they don't know,
which are part of the history of this country. Therefore, I have a very strong trust relationship with them. 'The Kashmir Files' was a very massy film and there is no person in this country who is not involved and engaged in Kashmir discussion from whichever side. Also, Kashmir hits the nerve of Indian mainstream politics. Besides that, Kashmir also has enemies and friends, and there is a government and lots of agencies, a long history, and everybody has an opinion on
Kashmir. Therefore, everybody was a target audience for that film, and it did a 350 crore rupee business at the box office, a Rs 15 crore film. So, maybe everybody's blessing, God's blessing, maybe we hit the right nerve.
When the film was released in theatres it did not do as well as The Kashmir Files. Do you think it will find its audience on Hotstar?
"I seriously can't predict the future, but all I know is that this film has been highly appreciated by anybody who has seen it, and roughly 60 exhibitors who have been in the business for 60 years or more, they have told me that they have never seen such a unanimous appreciation for a film like this in a long time. I have seen with my own eyes in theaters, people cry at least a minimum of six to seven times, and by the time the film ends, everybody's sobbing. So one thing I know definitely, that whoever has seen it, not even one person has told me that they were not moved by the film. If it is coming on OTT, I have a very strong feeling that people generally like to watch these kinds of films, which have something to discover. Primarily, one is star-based big commercial masala films, they have their own market but on OTT, I think people really appreciate discovering new facts or new ideas or some kind of mystery and stuff like that. And just as that film, I think, which will satisfy the viewers because it makes you emotional, plus it lets you know about an untold story which you don't know at all. The third thing will make you very proud about our country in a very different way and the reason why I think it’s going to be very popular amongst housewives and women and the working professional women, especially the women section, because this is one rare film, which gives a very sincere and tribute to the contribution of women in India's growth."
Some people felt The Kashmir Files and The Vaccine War was made to push a certain agenda. You also received threats. Do you ever get rattled by this?
Oh, absolutely not. The people say what they have to say but is there anybody in this world who doesn't have an agenda? Any creative person? I challenge you to find one person who doesn't have an agenda. Somebody who makes a love story also has an agenda to sell love. My agenda is to tell untold stories of India and start conversations around socio-political issues, which everybody's afraid to talk about. And I've said it in hundreds of interviews, I say very openly, this is my agenda. The Tashkent Files fits into that, Buddha in a Traffic Jam fits into that, The Kashmir Files fits into that and The Vaccine War - nobody knows the real story of scientists. Nobody knows that there are 70% women who are like your mothers and sisters who are working behind that. In that way, I have an agenda and my films are inconclusive. So it's for the audience to decide what they think about it. I just use my creative power to bring it out in the open so that there are a lot of conversations and I think that is the true meaning of democracy and the purpose of art.
8. You are one of the few people from the film industry who has been vocal about several things including political topics. Does voicing your opinions have an impact on the business of your movies? Is it difficult to get distributors or actors to associate with your project?
Everybody is expressing their opinions as long as you are comforting sweet opinions, then there is no problem. We have two-fold problems. What people have been writing has been so hilarious because they are writing whatever they want but the regular channels of people who promote these kinds of figures we quit from there, because we definitely want to disrupt this system and create a system which is based on value addition in films, and being very authentic and truthful about your business. Hollywood doesn't do that, no film industry shouts every single day, this is the business I have done. Once the film is over, then the figures come in and the common people are not bothered about it. Have you seen any business shouting their box office figures every single day? Nobody has heard me talking about the business of The Kashmir Files, we never advertised how much business we have done. So we look at cinema in a very different fashion and therefore what I speak may sound contrary to the mainstream narrative about things. We take pride in being disruptive and today some people may find my opinions, contrary to their beliefs, but also time comes when you understand the true meaning of them. I think in a democracy, democracy perishes, when good men refuse to speak, and they just play to the gallery so that their image is not disturbed. I don't carry any kind of a mask like that.
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