Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Nithya Menen and Kirti Kulhari are set to recreate the iconic team of women who executed Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) of November 2013, in the Independence Day release, Mission Mangal. Akshay Kumar would be seen playing the role of Rakesh Dhawan, who is the mission director.with ISRO.
Interestingly, during one of the promotional rounds, Akshay revealed that the film was initially called "Mangal Mahila Mandal" since it was based on ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission which was predominantly led by women scientists. However, the title was later changed to Mission Mangal. "We were going to call this film Mangal Mahila Mandal," he said, as quoted by a leading portal. Taapsee further spoke on the same and said, "That's how he told me about the film. 'Tu naam sun le bas.' But there are men who played significant role. There was his (Akshay's) character, Sharman and other, so we could not have kept that name."
In 2013, when Mars Orbiter Mission was launched, people thought that the mission is solely led by women scientists of ISRO. Talking about it, Vidya said in the interview, "When everyone saw that visual of women, a day after Mangalyaan was launched, everyone thought that it was a mission driven just by women. Which is what got clarified to me while reading the script that it had an equal contribution from men and women." She added, "What significant is that it had a huge contribution from women. In the film, we are clarifying that everyone has contributed equally."
Directed by Jagan Shakti, Mission Mangal is slated to hit screens on August 15.
(Source: India Today)
