In the last few years, Akshay Kumar has not only become the flagbearer of patriotic films in Bollywood but has also brought meaningful cinema to the audience. If he did not shy away from talking about open defecation and menstruation on the big screen, he is trying to bring more inspirational and important stories to the 70 mm with each passing day. And his latest release Mission Mangal is one such example. Based on India’s Mangalyaan or Mars Orbiter Mission, Jagan Shakti’s directorial venture has struck gold at the box office. After getting a bumper opening, Mission Mangal is now set to enter the Rs 100-crore club.

Released on Independence Day, Mission Mangal got a fabulous opening (Rs 29.16 crore). So much so that the film emerged as Akshay’s biggest opener so far. And the consecutive days numbers were no less. Mission Mangal made Rs 17.28 crore on its second day and Rs 23.58 crore on its third day, thus taking the three day collection to Rs 70.02 crore.

Touted to be India’s first space film, Mission Mangal follows the scientists at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who contributed to the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). The film also stars Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menen.

Talking about the film’s response at the ticket windows, Akshay Kumar told PTI that many people speculated that the film would make only Rs 60-70 crore, but he was keen to take the risk and bring the story to the audience.

“When we are making it, writing it, lots of people had even told us how much business it’ll do: ‘It’ll go till Rs 60-70 crore.’ Because this genre is not explored, nobody knows. It was a big risk. I had no idea where this film would go and how would people react to science. But it was a risk worth taking,” Akshay Kumar told PTI.

The 51-year-old actor further added that the film is doing well because children and family audience is loving Mission Mangal.

“Children are watching the film, dragging their parents who are then realising that even they didn’t know what kind of things went into sending a satellite on Mars. Our aim to make the film was to make science very simple. Even I didn’t know about this (the science behind it) but the story was so systematic, I understood it,” added Akshay Kumar.

source: indiatoday.in/movies/