Shekhar Kapur to Direct Biopic on Vaccine Pioneer Waldemar Haffkine

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur will next direct a film titled “Foreign Bodies,” a biopic of vaccine pioneer and bacteriologist Waldemar Haffkine. Though largely unknown to the wider public, Haffkine was the Ukrainian-Jewish scientist whose groundbreaking work on cholera and plague vaccines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saved millions of lives. Appointed State Bacteriologist in India under the British Raj, he later became the target of false accusations linking him to the deaths of 19 people from tetanus in a controversy that came to be known as the “Second Dreyfus Affair.  

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Haffkine repeatedly put his body and reputation on the line in his pursuit of scientific truth. The film, set across Odesa, Paris, London, Mumbai, and Kolkata, follows the life of a brilliant man who faced many trials and tribulations.    

As per reports, the movie is being produced by Helen Hadfield of Snapper Films, Alexandra Stone of Streetcar Productions, Egor Olesov of United Heroes, and J.D. Zacharias of Curiosity Rights. The screenplay is by British screenwriter Paul Twivy. The cast of the film is yet to be announced.

Shekhar Kapur is currently busy making the sequel to his directorial debut “Masoom,” titled “Masoom: The Next Generation,” which features his daughter, Kaveri Kapur. After “Masoom” (1983), Kapoor helmed “Mr. India” (1987) and “Bandit Queen” (1994), before directing “Elizabeth” (1998), “The Four Feathers” (2002) and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (2007). His last outing, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” was released in the UK in 2023.