Vivek Agnihotri

Some Lesser Known Facts About Vivek Agnihotri

• Vivek Agnihotri is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and author. He is a board member of India’s Central Board of Film Certification. Vivek Agnihotri is a cultural representative of Indian Cinema at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. He began his career with renowned Indian advertising agencies, and gradually, he shifted to the entertainment industry in India.

• Soon after completing his formal studies, Vivek Agnihotri worked with the world’s top companies including J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy & Mather, MacCann, Maggi, Nestle, and P&G. He also worked in the product launching team of Gillette and Coca-Cola. Later, Vivek Agnihotri established his own advertising company named Art Beat in Delhi. Soon, this company was regarded among the top ten fastest-growing agencies in India by Bussiness Today.

• Later, Vivek Agnihotri entered the Indian entertainment industry as a screenwriter and made an award-winning documentary film named ‘Social Justice in India.’ Vivek Agnihotri then started his own film production banner titled ‘Vivek Agnihotri Creates’ and screened various campaigns for renowned Indian brands such as Vicks, Godrej, P&G, Dainik Bhaskar, Government of India, and Blind Association of India.

• Thereafter, Vivek Agnihotri made a public ad film on AIDS, and for this ad film, Vivek Agnihotri won the A&M Gold award and Ad Club Gold award for excellent creativity and for his contribution to the welfare of society.

• Vivek Agnihotri has written the scripts of a number of memorable Indian television shows including Yeh Kahan Aa Gaye Hum (2015), Rishtey (2002), Saturday Suspense (1997), X-Zone (1998), Anubandh, and Asambhav (2004).

• Vivek Agnihotri is considered the Thriller King of the Indian entertainment industry.

• Vivek Agnihotri is an avid public speaker. He is often spotted speaking on various socio-political issues such as ‘Creative Thinking’ and ‘Innovation’ at various renowned global institutions including Ted, Harvard University Conclave, Neeti Aayog, Ideas India Conclave, World Hindu Congress, Indo-US Chamber of Commerce, and FICCI. The renowned international universities such as Purdue, Columbia, UNC, Houston University, Ohio State University in the USA, Oxford University, Kings College in the UK, and Indian educational institutions such as IITs, IIMs, National Law University, BHU, JNU, DU, Mumbai university often invite Vivek Agnihotri to speak on various social issues.

• In 2005, Vivek Agnihotri made his directorial debut with the film Chocolate, which was based on the story of a 1995 Hollywood crime thriller film.

• Vivek Agnihotri’s film Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (2007) did average business at the box office. In 2014, his erotic thriller film ‘Zid’ gave a poor performance at the box office.

• In 2009, Vivek Agnihotri, along with his wife, founded the ‘I am Buddha Foundation,’ which is an NGO that focuses on training the minds of disadvantaged youth towards creative thinking. Amid the COVID-19 lockdown crises in India, this NGO financially helped the deprived children and several unprivileged families across Maharashtra.

• In 2014, Vivek Agnihotri released the film ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam,’ which is based on Urban Naxalism. The nexus between Naxals, Media, NGOs, terrorists, and academicians in India were exposed by him in this film. The release of the film was delayed for five years as the Left parties in India resisted the theme of the film. During the making of this film, Vivek Agnihotri travelled all across India and had also faced a few violent assaults on him.

• Smriti Irani, an Indian politician, supported Vivek Agnihotri’s views that he expressed during a speech at Jadavpur University and Jawaharlal Nehru University for screening his film Buddha in a Traffic Jam in 2014.

• In 2017, a short film titled ‘Muhammad & Urvashi’ was released by him, and this film won several national and international awards.

• Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta put harsh allegations on Vivek Agnihotri in 2018. She alleged that Vivek inappropriately behaved with her during the making of the film Chocolate in 2005. She gave a public statement in 2018 that during the making of the film, Vivek Agnihotri asked her to strip clothes and dance with her male co-star Irrfan Khan when they had to give a close-up shot for the film. Later, Vivek Agnihotri denied all the allegations and lodged a defamation case against Tanushree Dutta. ^[4]India Today

• Vivek’s Twitter handle was blocked by Twitter when he abused Indian Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar in September 2018. Swara Bhaskar wrote against a politician named P. C. George, who called a rape victim a prostitute. ^[5]The Times of India Vivek replied to Swara,
  

  Where is the placard – ‘#MeTooProstituteNun’?”

  The tweet was indirectly interpreted by calling Swara a prostitute. Soon, Vivek cleared his statement and said,

  I was making a point about the placarding by liberals at selective instances of alleged perpetrators belonging to the Hindu community.”

• In 2019, a film titled ‘The Tashkent Files’ was based on the mysterious death of India’s second Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri in Tashkent was released by Vivek Agnihotri, and for this film, he won the Film & TV director’s association IFTDA award. Later, the renowned Indian educational institutions such as IIM Ahmedabad and Media Studies of Mumbai University included ‘The Tashkent Files’ as a case study in their official curriculum.

• Apart from being a filmmaker, Vivek Agnihotri is also an accomplished author. ‘Urban Naxals’ was published by him in 2018, and this book was regarded as the fastest-selling book of the year. He then wrote ‘Who Killed Shastri’ in 2020, and it was critically acclaimed all across India amid the COVID-19 lockdown in India.

  

• During his studies in the USA, Vivek Agnihotri initiated a social movement to raise the funds for the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

• Vivek Agnihotri belongs to a family of freedom fighters, and once, his family was awarded by the President of India for its contribution to India’s freedom struggle.

• Vivek Agnihotri has a YouTube channel titled ‘#VRATV,’ which telecasted daily news and updates related to the COVID-19 disease when the pandemic hit India.

• Vivek Agnihotri likes travelling and writing columns. He is a social media influencer and remains very active on various social media platforms. He is followed by over 290k people on Instagram and 88k people on Facebook. On Twitter, he is followed by more than 708k people. Vivek Agnihotri often shares pictures and videos of his movies and books on social media.

• Vivek Agnihotri has served as the chairman of the international jury of the International Film Festival of India, the jury of the National Film Awards, and the Secretary of the Indian Film Director’s association and Screenwriters Association of India. He is a board member of the CBFC and a cultural representative of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

• In May 2020, Vivek Agnihotri shared a gang rape tweet along with a photo of Ratan Tata standing beside a Nano car. He tweeted,
  

  What makes NANO the safest car for women.”

  On the top of the tweet, it was written,

  There is simply no way to get gang-raped in here.”

  Vivek Agnihotri later deleted the tweet after he was slammed for sharing such controversial tweets by various Twitter users.

  

• In 2022, Vivek Agnihotri released the film ‘The Kashmir Files,’ which is based on the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990. For the making of this film, Vivek Agnihotri, along with his wife and daughter, travelled all across the globe to meet and record the statements of the first-generation victims of the Kashmir genocide. In August 2021, this film was scheduled to be released, but due to the COVID-19 lockdown, its release was postponed. It was released in March 2022.

• Vivek Agnihotri is a supporter of Narendra Modi, but he does not follow the Bharatiya Janata Party.

• Vivek Agnihotri is a fitness enthusiast. He often shares pictures of his workout sessions on various social media platforms.

  

• Several renowned Indian magazines and newspapers often feature Vivek Agnihotri in their articles.

  

• Soon after the release of the film The Kashmir Files, Vivek Agnihotri stated in one of his social media posts that The Kapil Sharma Show team refused to invite them on the show for the promotion of their film after its release on 11 March 2022. Vivek stated that as his film had no popular celebrities, the comedian and his team refused their entry on the show. Later, Kapil Sharma reacted to the viral social media news. ^[6]India Today Kapil tweeted,
  

  यह सच नहीं है rathore साहब 😊 आपने पूछा इसलिए बता दिया, बाक़ी जिन्होंने सच मान ही लिया उनको explanation देने का क्या फ़ायदा. Just a suggestion as a experienced social media user:- never believe in one sided story in today’s social media world 😊 dhanyawaad 🙏”

• In 2022, the democratic & liberal state of the USA -Rhode Island conferred Vivek Agnihotri with a recognition certificate for officially recognising Kashmir Genocide through his film ‘The Kashmir Files.’

  

• In September 2023, the screening of Vivek Agnihotri’s film ‘The Vaccine War’ was attended by many personalities including politician Nupur Sharma; this event marked Sharma’s first public appearance after her sparked controversial remarks against Prophet Muhammad and the Muslim community that she made during a tv debate in 2022.