Mission Mangal Director Reacts To Poster Row Over Akshay Getting Bigger Display Than Co-stars

Ever since the first poster of Mission Mangal released online, it has been receiving flak for giving Akshay Kumar a bigger display than the female co-stars - Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menen. When the director of the film, Jagan Shakti, was asked to comment on the same, he said, "You are going to have that because when you have seven to eight stars you are bound to have such a poster. But it is everybody's story and everybody brings in the crowd. In the writing every role is strong."

Shakti was an associate director on Padman (2018) and Holiday (2014) and it was during the former when he had shared the idea of Mission Mangal with Akshay.

Talking about film's cast, Shakti said, "I am blessed, I have no complaints. I narrated him and he loved it. It was a blessing for me to have Akshay in my first film itself. I approached Vidya ji, I knew her when I was working on 'Paa' (as an AD), I have also worked with Sonakshi on two films - 'Akira' and 'Holiday'. I approached them because I knew them well. Maybe the script was strong that everybody agreed to be part of the film."

Shakti said his elder sister is a scientist working for Indian Research Space Organisation (ISRO) and through her, he got to meet a lot of people who were part of the Mars Mission. The film also features Sharman Joshi and Dalip Tahil in pivotal roles.

Mission Mangal is scheduled to release on August 15. The film is based on real-life scientists, who contributed to India's first interplanetary expedition, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), launched by ISRO in 2013.