Advertising and television serials Agnihotri started his career with the advertising agencies
Ogilvy and
McCann, and served as creative director for campaigns of
Gillette and
Coca-Cola. In 2018, Agnihotri claimed that he had received threats for using the name Mohammad in his short film
Mohammad and Urvashi.
Filmmaking Agnihotri debuted in
Bollywood with
Chocolate (2005), a remake of the 1995 Hollywood neo-noir crime thriller
The Usual Suspects. Critical reception of the movie was negative, and the film fared poorly at box office.
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal is about an all-Asian football team in the United Kingdom that wins trophies while fighting on-field discrimination and the local municipality that wants to sell the team's ground. It received poor reception from critics and did "average" business at the box office. and fared moderately at the box office.
Buddha in a Traffic Jam featured his wife Pallavi and premiered at
Mumbai International Film Festival in 2014; it was received unfavourably by critics and severely under-performed at the box office.
Junooniyat was also subject to poor reviews and fared similarly. Agnihotri's 2014 erotic thriller
Zid received poor reviews but did average business at the box office. However, Agnihotri has since claimed that credit for direction and screenplay was wrongly attributed to him, and that he was not involved with the film.
The Tashkent Files became a sleeper box-office hit and won
National Film Awards. In March 2022, Agnihotri released
The Kashmir Files on the
exodus of Kashmiri Hindus; which become a
blockbuster hit and earned him another
National Film Award. Shortly after the release of the film, he was provided
Y-category security detail across the country by the
Ministry of Home Affairs based on inputs from the
Intelligence Bureau. Agnihotri's next was
medical drama film
The Vaccine War (2023) which was about the development of
Covaxin during the
COVID-19 pandemic in India. The film opened to mixed reviews from the critics and emerged as a
box-office bomb. His latest film
The Bengal Files (2025) was originally titled "The Delhi Files on 1984 riots before
The Bengal files focuses on Direct Action Day and the Nokahali Riots, the film released with mixed reviews and became a box office flop.
Film certification In 2017, Agnihotri was selected as convenor by the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the preview committee of
48th International Film Festival of India. The same year, he was selected as member on board of India's
Central Board of Film Certification.
ICCR On 15 September 2020, Agnihotri was appointed as cultural representative at
Indian Council for Cultural Relations. He would represent Indian Cinema at ICCR.
Urban Naxals In 2018, Agnihotri wrote
Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam, in which he described individuals in academia and media who were allegedly colluding with
Naxalites in a bid to overthrow the Indian government and were thus "invisible enemies of India" as "Urban Naxals". Critics said the term is "vague rhetoric" that is designed to discredit intellectuals who are critical of
the establishment and
political right, and to stifle dissent. The
Union Minister of Human Resource Development Smriti Irani endorsed Agnihotri's views of
Jadavpur University and
Jawaharlal Nehru University for having refused to screen
Buddha in a Traffic Jam. National Kishore Kumar Award In 2022, Agnihotri has received the National Kishore Kumar Samman. == Personal life ==