A day before the India release of Vivek Agnihotri’s The Vaccine War, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said it is a cheap bid for publicity on the part of the director to accuse Tharoor of promoting foreign vaccines in a recent interview. Stating that he would seek legal advice against it, Tharoor said it is concerning because some people will start to believe if a lie is repeated enough. “It is obviously a cheap bid for publicity, but the concern is that once a lie is repeated often enough, some people will start to believe it. Am seeking legal advice,” Shashi Tharoor said.

The clip is viral in which Vivek Agnihotri said he has no objection to celebrities taking money and promoting something, but people holding constitutional posts should not do it. And then Vivek Agnihotri named Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. “If a right-wing person promotes Jawaan for some money, that’s not a problem. He is just earning some money. Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Virat Kohli promote products that they don’t use and will not ever use. That’s a business give and take. But people holding Constitutional posts and taking money to promote something against the interest of the country is very concerning,” Vivek Agnihotri said.

“Chief minister of Delhi, Shashi Tharoor sahab,” Vivek Agnihotri said adding that he is not levelling allegations but just telling the truth. “We have shown everything in the movie. Certain things are blurred in the Indian version as we cannot show that, but in the version that was released abroad, it is there,” Vivek Agnihotri said.

Agnihotri’s upcoming movie is about India’s vaccine journey and in the last few days of promotion the director conveyed the message, carried by the film, that there was a big gang of people who were trying to bring foreign vaccine as they believed India could not come up with a vaccine of its own against Covid. “I have focused mostly on India’s victory, how India is becoming a great nation, how India has become self-reliant and how India’s science is ready to show direction to the world. More than that, I also wanted people to understand who your enemies are. If you want to know who are the enemies of India, who is trying to sell India, then now you will get the answer in the vaccine war,” Agnihotri said in an interview.