Indian-Americans applaud film 'The Vaccine War', say it is a true tribute to Indian scientists

Washington, August 28

Indian-Americans have applauded the movie ‘The Vaccine War’ by award-winning film director Vivek Agnihotri and described it as an eye-opener to the accomplishments of Indian scientists, in particular women, for helping a country of 1.4 billion people successfully combat covid-19 under extreme circumstances.

Agnihotri, who is currently on an ‘India for Humanity Tour, USA’ and screening his latest movie before a select audience in various cities received a standing ovation from Indian-Americans in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC.

He was joined by popular actress and movie producer Pallavi Joshi. The movie is about Indian scientists successfully developing a vaccine for covid-19 under extreme circumstances and obstructions posed by certain foreign players.

“It (the movie) kind of brought back everything. I really appreciate how it focused on the underdogs of the Indian scientists and women. We (women scientists) go unappreciated. Scientists are the backbones of health care, and they go unappreciated because we start working in the basement of the hospital or on the back end of the hospital and people don’t really know what we are doing,” Jyota, an Indian-American scientist who works in Quest Diagnostics lab here said after watching the movie.

The local organisers initially planned for the private screening of the movie in one theatre. They ended up screening in two theatres because of high demand among Indian-Americans.

Both the theatres were houseful. Vivek and Pallavi received standing ovations from the audience.

“It is an inspiring movie,” said Mukta after watching the movie.

“I learned a lot about what actually went into making it, what were the difficulties and challenges and pressures and what to overcome and the magnitude of its success.        It’s very nice to know, thanks to their directors and producers,” said her husband, Vijay.

“The slogan I really liked was ‘We can do it’, that really hit me…,” said Kumar, who lives in Fall Church, Virginia, after watching the movie.

Gita Kishore, who lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, said the movie was really based on science.

“Being a scientist myself, I could see the trials and tribulations of all the scientists,” she said and applauded the women scientists of India for giving an affordable covid-19 vaccine to India and the rest of the world.