‘Mission Mangal’ Is a Film Led by Akshay Kumar: R Balki

Mission Mangal hits the theatres on 15th August

R Balki has produced Mission Mangal

(Photo: The Quint)

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Mission Mangal, right from its authenticity about the Mangalyaan, to its poster being dominated by Akshay Kumar. The film’s producer, R Balki, recently opened up about the controversies in an interview with Times of India.

About Akshay overshadowing the five women in the film’s trailer, he said that though Akshay is the hero of the film, the five women’s characters are as strong and independent as his. “Mission Mangal is not a woman-centric film. Why should I try and empower women, when they are already superior and more powerful than men. I doubt they need it,” Balki added.

“It’s rare and nice to see so many women on a single film poster. It must have received a lot of attention, but this film is led by Akshay Kumar, like Padman was.”

R Balki on <i>Mission Mangal</i>

Jagan Shakti, who assisted R Balki over the years and is now directing Mission Mangal, said that they had chosen to create seven-eight characters to build their story, out of the thousands who made Mars Mission possible in reality. He added that Akshay’s character is not empowering anyone in the film but only working with everyone.

“I look at all characters as scientists at ISRO. In fact, even the women who work at ISRO, including my sister, don’t think that they are any different from their male colleagues.”

Jagan Shakti

There were a lot of reports suggesting that the movie’s trailer doesn’t do justice to the reality and it has a lot of differences with how Mangalyaan was actually implemented. On this, Jagan had to say that they did a lot of research and interviewed around30-40 ISRO scientists to create about 1800 hours of audio recordings which helped them while scripting. However, it had to be fictionalized a bit, he added.

“We didn’t want to make a salute-your-flag Independence Day film. We already thank our scientists for their achievements. Our job here was to write an enjoyable film that will leave you feeling charged and inspired.”

R Balki on making a patriotic film

“We cannot impose knowledge on people who come to the theatre for an experience. We had to find simpler ways to decode complex scientific things. Thus, we had to use everyday examples like home science, to explain the difficult terminology and processes, and blend it with an emotional and thrilling story,” said R Balki about twisting the story a little.