Budget of Mangalyaan mission was lesser than 2.0's: Akshay Kumar

Director Jagan Shakti’s Mission Mangal is based on India’s Mars Orbiter mission, popularly known as Mangalyaan. During the trailer launch of the film, Akshay Kumar, who plays the lead, pointed out the low cost in which the entire mission was made possible. 

The actor said that he derived much knowledge about the mission only after coming on board this film. “I didn’t know too much about this mission. But because of this film I got to know a lot after meeting my director Jagan. There are a lot of facts that we are unaware of. Do you know how much we spent in this Mangalayaan mission? It’s Rs450 crore,” he said. 

Akshay went onto compare its cost with that the budget of his film 2.0, that released last year. “When NASA sent a satellite on Mars they spent more than Rs6000 crore. What’s interesting is that the budget of my film 2.0 [2018] is Rs500 crore. They [ISRO] did in a cost lower. It is such an incredible story that I feel should reach to the people,” he said. 

Actress Taapsee Pannu, who also plays a pivotal role in the film, compared the budget of the film with the Hollywood movie Gravity (2013), which was based on a space mission. “The cost of the mission is 1/3rd of the budget of the film Gravity. Whenever someone asks me about the film, the first thing I remember is that we sent an orbiter to Mars in one third of the cost of a film that America made,” she said. 

Mission Mangal will be released on 15 August.