FITB India DVD coverDylan Mohan Gray’s award-winning non-fiction film Fire in the Blood, which has created shockwaves around the world since debuting at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, will be released on DVD in India on May 23. The explosive, internationally-acclaimed film will also release globally for rental and purchase in high-definition Video on Demand (VOD) on the same day the DVD releases in India.

Fire in the Blood, released in India by PVR Directors Rare on October 11, 2013, set an all-time record for the longest theatrical run by any non-fiction feature film in Indian history, spending an unprecedented 5 weeks in theatres. The film has been an official selection at over 60 leading film festivals in 40 countries, winning a number of major international awards and nominations.

Narrated by Oscar-winner William Hurt, who lent his iconic voice to the film ‘pro bono’ basis because he felt it was so important, Fire in the Blood is the never-before-told story of how Western pharmaceutical companies and governments aggressively blocked access to low-cost AIDS drugs in the years after 1996, directly resulting in more than 10 million deaths in Africa and other parts of the global south. The movie follows the small, unlikely group of people who decided to fight back against this deeply unjust blockade, eventually succeeding and helping to save millions upon millions of lives.

Director Dylan Mohan Gray says “The thing that astonishes audiences in India when they see Fire in the Blood is the fact that India is the undisputed hero of this story, despite coming under intense pressure from Western corporations and governments for supplying the world with quality affordable medicines the Westerners believe reduce their giant pharmaceutical companies’ sky-high profit margins.  Countries around the world are desperate for India to stand firm on this issue, because as the film makes clear, if our government backs down the results will be cataclysmic and huge numbers of people who could easily be treated and cured will simply be left to die.”

Fire in the Blood features key contributions from former US President Bill Clinton, pioneering Indian drugmaker, Cipla chairman Yusuf Hamied, former Pfizer executive-turned-whistleblower Peter Rost and Nobel Prize-winners Desmond Tutu and Joseph Stiglitz.

The US Government, acting on behalf of its powerful multinational pharmaceutical companies, has recently launched an intense, high-level campaign to try to stop India from producing and supplying the world with affordable medicines through unprecedented threats of harsh sanctions. This dramatic turn of events means that Fire in the Blood’s release on DVD and VOD could hardly happen at a more critical time.