Vivek Agnihotri’s The Vaccine War: Shashi Tharoor seeks legal advice against filmmaker’s ‘lie’, ’cheap publicity bid’

Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor called out filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri's claim that the former promoted foreign vaccines by taking money from the companies. Tharoor alleged that Agnihotri's assertions were ‘a cheap bid for publicity’. MP Tharoor also informed that he is seeking legal counsel challenging Agnihotri's claims.

Vivek Agnihotri ‘The Vaccine War’ is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language medical thriller to be released on 28 September. Notably, Agnihotri has earlier famously courted controversy with his movies including The Kashmir Files.

In a video shared by an ‘X’ user, Agnihotri is seen being interviewed by OpiIndia, where the filmmaker claims, "Agar constitutional post k log desh k interest k khilaaf, kisi aur cheez ko paise leke promote larte hain, to ye bhoto chinta wala vishae hain. (If people holding constitutional power take money to promote products, against the interests of the country, then that becomes a point for worry).

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When the interviewer prods Agnihotri to elaborate on the 'people with constitutional posts', the filmmaker mentions ‘Chief minister of Delhi, Shashi Tharoor saab’. 

Further Agnihotri emphasized that he is ‘speaking the truth’ when the OpiIndia interviewer asks the filmmaker to confirm that he is accusing Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal, and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor of promoting foreign vaccine by taking bribe from foreign companies.

See the video here

“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.” Agnihotri also compared his accusation of ministers in governance with celebrities and business.

The viral clip reached Tharoor who informed that he is seeking legal help against Agnihotri's claims, “It is a 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.” Tharoor wrote.

Agnihotri had earlier launched an attack on Congress in September 2018, when he tweeted a listicle claiming that a survey from the BBC found that the Indian National Congress was the second most corrupt party in the world. The survey was proven to be fake and an online editor writing for the BBC said that they have never conducted such surveys.

Another instance of Agnihotri's targeted false claims was in March 2019, when he claimed that former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was responsible for the outcome of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965. Notably, the first Prime Minister of India and Congress leader Nehru had died in May 1964, and Lal Bahadur Shastri was Prime Minister during the war.