Akshay Kumar denies plan to release Marathi dubbed version of Mission Mangal

This afternoon Ameya Khopkar, a leader of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and president of the MNS Chitrapat Sena, a cine workers' union, went live on the social media platform Facebook to announce that his party would not allow a Marathi dubbed version of the Akshay Kumar-starrer Mission Mangal to be released in Maharashtra.

Khopkar said dubbed versions of big-budget Hindi films would grab the shows allotted for Marathi films in multiplexes, thus hurting the cause of regional cinema.

“The film is being released in Hindi, with which we have no problem. But the film will also be released in Marathi in Maharashtra. Don’t miss the conspiracy behind this. If films of other languages are dubbed in Marathi and released in Maharashtra, what should Marathi cinema do? We will never allow this,” the union leader said in his video statement.

Asked about this right after Khopkar’s Facebook Live event, Akshay Kumar said there was no move to release Mission Mangal in Marathi. “I haven’t seen the video [posted by Khopkar]," he said. "But we aren’t releasing [the film] in Marathi."

The actor said only a poem from the film had been released in Marathi, which might have given the MNS the idea that the film is being released in Marathi as well. “But I have also done that [poem] in Punjabi and Gujarati,” he pointed out. 

Directed by Jagan Shakti, Mission Mangal is due to be released on Independence Day.