Manan Desai

According to the sources, the director has already started preparing for the same and is currently researching as to who were the scientists who played roles in preparing the vaccines.The idea of telling the story on the big screen came after Agnihotri travelled in various countries, during which he also tested positive for COVID and had to confront the medical infrastructure of the foreign nations.In an exclusive interview with ANI, Agnihotri said, "In the last six to seven months, I've been travelling all over the world. I was in US, Germany, UK, Netherlands, and Hungary. In fact, in all developed countries of the world and in between, my wife and I also got COVID there. I realised that their infrastructure, and awareness was very poor about COVID.""The RTPCR test is so expensive, takes 48 hours to seven days in the US. General hygiene culture was also very poor. So it triggered in my mind that what is it that we (India) have been able to achieve so successfully? So I started reading about it more and trying to understand all that, and I must tell you, this world talks in terms of India as an underdeveloped country, but this is what India, especially what Indian Council for Medical Research, and their scientists and NIV, the women scientists are doing," he added.The filmmaker said that he thought the story of those who achieved the "greatest" success should be captured on the screen."Regular ordinary people without resources, what they have achieved is the greatest success story of humanity. So, I started thinking whether it should be captured on cinema or not, and should be documented or not," he said.Agnihotri said that he is still researching the subject and acknowledged the message that "if you want to achieve something, resources don't matter, only your will matters"."I'm still researching because I'm not so deep into it. If you want to achieve something, what matters is what you feel about humanity," he said.He appreciated the work done by the team of ICMR scientists."One thing is talking about humanity politically, but one thing is what you actually do for humanity, and I had tears in my eyes when I read the story of how our scientists had to struggle in Iran. You know, the kind of threats, but still they evacuated every single person is a great story, I think this is the greatest story of independent India since freedom," said Agnihotri while lauding the scientists.Eulogising India's successfully ongoing vaccination drive under which a feat of administering over 200 crore doses was reached recently, 'The Kashmir Files' director said that this is the story which should be seen by the countries in the world."So a country which had only one lab and no resources. Everybody said India can never ever make a vaccine. There were so many agencies working against us. How we created our own vaccine widely and administered 200 crore doses. I think this is the story that everybody from Tanzania to Tokyo should be seeing," Agnihotri said.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has created havoc at the box office the film is already competing with historic blockbusters like Baahubali 2Avengers: End Game, Sultan, and War in its advance booking sales. The movie has recorded the biggest advance for a film in India since the release of Avengers: End Game in April 2019, and as per our estimates, the three national chains have sold over 4.75 lakh tickets at the three key national chains - PVR, INOX, and Cinepolis. The approximate gross of tickets sold in advance at the national chains in Rs. 16.50 crores, and the advances alone are higher than the opening day aggregate total of five major Bollywood releases - Bell Bottom, Bunty Aur Babli 2, Satyameva Jayate 2, Antim, and Tadap.Just to note, we are just talking about advance booking of the film, and that too in the three major chains as compared to all India collections of the aforementioned Bollywood films. By Wednesday evening, the advances at these 3 chains will be higher than the opening day aggregate of the aforementioned five films with a new addition of Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui too. And this speaks volumes about the euphoria that Spiderman is creating at the box office. The film has brought the audience back to the cinema halls in a true sense and the hype is the highest for a feature film in India since Avengers: End Game. There's still one and a half days remaining for the film to sell more tickets in advance, and by end of Wednesday, one expects a ticket sale of 7 to 10 lakh at the national chains, which puts up an earth-shattering advance booking figure in the excess of Rs. 24 crores, thereby being one of the highest ever in the history of Indian cinema. The film is recording good sales all across - be it Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, or the Southern markets like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The response to advance booking of Spiderman is HISTORIC and the film has already created a MAYHEM at the ticket window in India much before the release. There have been reports of server crashes too from multiple locations due to excessive traffic on the websites. Of the 4.75 lakh plus tickets sold in advance, nearly 2.90 lakh tickets are for the opening day i.e. Thursday, whereas the remaining are split over the weekend. Spiderman is looking at a historic opening of Rs. 30 crore net on a working Thursday, and this is an indicator that the audience is willing to step out to watch a film on the big screen, provided that the content has something that warrants a big-screen watch.The film has surpassed all expectations in terms of advance booking and now all eyes on the opening day as it is poised to emerge as the biggest opener of 2021 in Hindi belts by surpassing Sooryavanshi. And interestingly, this is happening with a mere restrained release on approximately 2400 screens, which yet again gives out a message that screen count has nothing to do with box office collections. Over the last few weeks, we have given reasons for certain films suffering due to 50% occupancy cap in Maharashtra, or the Covid fear, but here comes a Hollywood film to break all myths and give out a message loud and clear - make a big film and there is enough capacity even in just 2500 screens to put up an earth-shattering opening of Rs. 30 crore plus.

Veteran actor Arvind Trivedi, who played the role of Ravana in Ramanand Sagar's TV cult hit Ramayan, has passed away at the age of 82. The news was confirmed by a family member on Tuesday night.According to a tabloid, Arvind Trivedi's nephew, Kaustubh Trivedi, confirmed the unfortunate news said that the veteran star was not keeping well for quite some time. On October 5, he suffered a heart attack that led to multi-organ failure. The last rites will be held at Dahanukarwadi crematorium, Kandivali West, in Mumbai on October 6 morning.Apart from Ramayan, he also starred in Vikram Aur Betaal. Arvind Trivedi had also been a member of Parliament from 1991 to 1996. Between the years 2002 to 2003, he was acting chairman for the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC).

Indias youngest boutique film production house Yoodlee Films has already carved a substantial niche for itself across the OTT space with feature films, that have been feted and acclaimed with both global and national awards. Since the studios inception, it has had 17 feature films across languages and genres, that have found a coveted place in multiple leading OTT platforms. Now, making a confident stride ahead from there, Yoodlee Films is now foraying into the ever-expanding world of web series. They have just announced their first show, and it's by all accounts, an intriguing one to look forward to. The series is titled Invisible Woman, and will be headlined by the indomitable Suneil Shetty, who also makes his OTT debut with this project. The noir action thriller series will be helmed by acclaimed Tamil director Rajesh M. Selva and will also star Esha Gupta.Vikram Mehra, MD Saregama India says, "We have been very effective in addressing the demand of the new emerging digital audiences for wholesome entertainment content through our slate of feature films that have found a place of favour in the many OTT platforms. Films like the gutsy revenge drama Ajji, to the pathos filled National- award winning human drama Hamid, the heartland love-stories of Chaman Bahaar and Kanpuriye, to the urban social commentaries like Comedy Couple and Axone Yoodlee Films has revelled in creating engaging narratives that dont toe the conventional line. Now we take the leap into the world of webseries a space that we have been itching to get into, given how consumption patterns of consumers have seen a tectonic shift to binge-watching these web-series from all over. We were waiting for the right project to come our way and Invisible Woman, headlined by the indefatigable Suniel Shetty , in an edgy action thriller, is just the right one to augur this transition."Says Suniel Shetty, "A web series today must have something to set it apart from the barrage of narratives that already exist, and the story of Invisible Woman immediately captured my attention. I am very happy to collaborate with Yoodlee to bring 'Invisible Woman' to life and to make my debut in a web series as unique as this."Invisible Woman is currently going on floors and will be the first of many series that Yoodlee Films will announce in the coming months - a strategic move to be active in the web series space, as it continues churning out feature films alongside.

Updated: May 18, 2021 - 6:53 PM IST Popular choreographer Geeta Kapur, who is currently judging the dance reality show Super Dancer: Chapter 4, has left everyone surprised with her look in the show. Fans are in utter shock after seeing the pictures.Geeta Kapur, popularly known as Geeta Maa in the industry, recently took to her Instagram and shared pictures of her look from the sets. In the picture, she was seen wearing a ruby red outfit, a multi-stone necklace, pearl ring, red lipstick and a red bindi on her forehead.But, what caught the attention of the eyes was when she was spotted wearing a sindoor on her head. In Indian customs, sindoor is supposed to be worn by only married a woman. Sharing the post, Ready set shoot ... #superdancerchapter4, Geeta wrote in her Instagram post.