Don’t Do Run-of-The-Mill Stories: Farhan Akhtar On Backing India’s First Firefighter Film Agni

Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akthar on Thursday said his aim has always been to make unique movies and his upcoming home production “Agni” will bring out a never-before-seen tale of firefighters.

Directed by Rahul Dholakia of “Raees” fame, the film is backed by Akhtar and Riteish Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment in association with Prime Video.

“At Excel, in partnership with Amazon, (we) have tried for a long time to keep breaking new moulds, trying and telling different stories that are away from run-of-the-mill stories or something that is formulaic or is the trend of the year or season.

"That’s what we keep trying, sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t but the endeavour goes on. We hope that when this film comes out, all of you watch it. After having seen it, and interacted with Rahul and the entire team, they’ve put out something that has a beating heart,” Akhtar told reporters at the trailer launch of “Agni”.

The producer said he instantly jumped at the idea of backing a movie on firefighters since it was a novel idea when Dholakia narrated the story.

“It is not just an action movie but the heart of the film is drama, there’s duty, bravery, courage, and sacrifice but that's bravery, courage and sacrifice shown by the family as well. It is an important and fresh story,” Akhtar said.

Dholakia said the film will shed light on the contribution of firefighters.

“The concept of the film is how we see films on various forces like police and faujis (army) but we have never seen a film on firefighters, internationally you may have seen but in India, we do not have it.

"When there is a fire, we call them but there are so many other rescue operations that they carry out that we aren't even aware of. In ‘Agni’, we are talking about the lives of the firefighters, they deserve more respect.” Pratik Gandhi and Divyenndu feature in the lead alongside Saiyami Kher, Sai Tamhankar, Jitendra Joshi, Udit Arora, and Kabir Shah.

Gandhi and Divyenndu – who appeared last in the comedy flick “Madgaon Express” -- pulled each other’s leg at the press conference.

“Working with Divyenndu is very difficult, it’s difficult to concentrate when he is around, no one will watch you when he is around,” Gandhi said.

“He is talking about my looks,” Divyenndu said on a lighter note.

Kher said she learnt a lot about firefighters through “Agni”.

“When I heard about the script it was very exciting, the whole process of becoming a firefighter was exciting. When the teaser came out there were so many comments stating, ‘There are no female firefighters'.

"Our lack of knowledge is that there are so many female firefighters in the department, I’ve to say that I was unaware of a lot of things that the fire department does. So, the film has been a great learning,” the actor said.

“Agni” will start streaming on Prime Video on December 6.

---PTI---