Akshay Kumar says the sky is not the limit for Mission Mangal.

Bollywood is not the first thing people think about when it comes to space exploration films. Star Trek and Star Wars are the most recognised brand names in such cases but Akshay Kumar promises a change to that. The actor took to Twitter to express his excitement for his upcoming film Mission Mangal, stating that he was doing the film for his daughter and other children of her age. He added that he had always wanted to be part of an inspiring and imaginative film like this one, which he finally is.

The film faced a roadblock when filmmaker Radha Bhardwaj filed a copyright infringement against the film stating that it had been a rip-off of a script she had written in the past titled Space MOMs and would be focusing on the women on space travel. The script had been shared by Radha Bhardwaj with a producer on the promise that it would not be shared with someone else. When Radha Bhardwaj found out that the script had been shared with Vidya Balan, she cancelled her agreement with the producer and dropped the film. Although she had dropped it, Radha Bhardwaj had registered her script with the US Copyright Office and asked ISRO for support. ISRO had agreed to support her and even arranged her to meet some of their engineers. Mission Mangal’s producer, R. Balki, claimed that the copyright infringement was not true and invited Radha Bhardwaj to read their script to confirm so.

Mission Mangal is an upcoming Bollywood film based on ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission launched in 2013. The film’s primary cast includes Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Sharman Joshi and Sonakshi Sinha. Jagan Shakti is the director of the film. Its producers are Akshay Kumar, Sajid Nadiadwala and R. Balki. The film’s shooting began in November and will be released on August 15.