Nana Patekar, veteran Bollywood actor, nowadays is seen busy promoting his upcoming movie, The Vaccine War – A True Story. In one of his recent chats, he talked about yesteryear acting legends, end of the superstar era, and about their stardom. He said: “Look at the stars we had. We can”t forget late Yusuf saab, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. We still remember them.”

Mr. Patekar then talked about present stars, how their stardom is not intact and how box office figures decides the star’s position currently. “Today, stardom lasts for a week. These are all figures,” he asserted.

The actor is affirmative about OTT and he is of the opinion that entry of OTT favoured actors like him, and them getting better opportunities has not been presented before.

“At that time we did not get a chance. People with faces like ours did not get work in films at that time. Just as Om Puri did not have a hero-like face, Irrfan had no face. I had no face, Manoj Bajpayee had no face. Now we all have got a stage to showcase our skills. People recognized him and started calling him good. Now it will be OTT, we have a platform where we show our talent and people love us with open heart,” he added.

The Vaccine War – A True Story, directed by Vivek Agnihotri, is based on the true story of how National Institute of Virology and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in partnership with Bharat Biotech developed Covaxin, an indigenous coronavirus vaccine. Nana Patekar plays the head of the team of scientists, and in the film, Pallavi Joshi, Anupam Kher,and Raima Sen appears in significant roles.

The movie is set to release on September 28, 2023 in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. Produced by Pallavi Joshi, the film has been marketed as “India’s first bio-science film.”