The Vaccine War

<p>Scientists at the Indian biomedical lab roll out an indigenous vaccine at the height of the in the race against time. The Director General of Dr. spearheads the vaccine development project. A high level expert committee is set-up by the , ICMR, and . A scientific team of bioengineers led by , Director of – , consists of Virologists Dr. Sreelekshmy Mohandas, Dr. Nivedita Gupta, Dr. Anita Aich and ; Epidemiologists and Infectious Disease Scientists Dr. Rajni Kant Srivastava, , Dr. Samiran Panda, Dr. Varsha Potdar and Dr. Enna Dogra Gupta. The SARS-CoV-2 strain (NIV-2020-770) used in developing the BBV152 vaccine is retrieved from tourists who arrive in , India. The scientific team sequences the ‘Vero CCL-81’ cells and the genome sequence is deposited in the GISAID database. The team then reports the development of an inactivated whole-virion SARS-CoV-2 vaccine BBV152, which elicits a neutralizing antibody response in animal studies, and phase I clinical trial against hCoV-19/India/2020770. The film was announced in November 2022, last schedule started in June 2023 and the shoot wrapped up on 13 August 2023. The theatrical release date was announced via teaser on the 77th . The film will be released on 28 September 2023. Earlier it was set to be released on 15 August 2023 and then 24 October 2023 It is planned to be released in eleven Indian languages including , , , , , , , , , and . The official trailer was released on 12 September 2023. was marketed as “India’s first bio-science film”. The film was theatrically released on 28 September 2023. The films was sold to for 35 crore. The film was premiered on the platform on 24 November 2023. The music of the film is composed by , , and Shryea Kaul while lyrics written by and Shryea Kaul. garnered mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Mudit Bhatnagar of rating it 3.5/5, praising its blend of science and emotion. Reviewing the film, Shalini Langer of rated the film with 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote “Vivek Agnihotri’s devotion to his subject – with obviously the government’s full cooperation and access – veers the film often towards the look and feel of a public service broadcast”. Zinia Bandyopadhyay of rated the film with 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote<br /> “watching the film might give the impression that the entire industry made it their mission to undermine the vaccine and the dedicated scientists behind it.” Renuka Vyavahare of rated the film with 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote “Nana Patekar is outstanding but the film reduces itself to being a government mouthpiece parading as a medical drama.” Venkat Arikatla of gave a rating of 1.5 out of 5, calling it an overdose of propagandist torture. He stated, what the film does is malign those journalists who rightly questioned the ruling party’s grand claims of being capable of producing the vaccine. The film is also reviewed by Manoj Kumar and Manish Sachan in , Anuj Kumar of , Nandini Ramnath of , Monika Rawal Kukreja of , Guruprasad D. N. of , Avinash Ramachandran of , Pooja Biraia Jaiswal of , Garima Sadhwani and Pratikshy Mishra of , Mayur Sanap of , and Lachmi Deb Roy of . On its opening day, collected a total India net of 0.85 crore . has grossed 12.2 crore in India, with a further 2.5 crore gross overseas collection.</p>