Poor Akshay Kumar. The Bollywood superstar who made a multi-language promo for his Independence Day release Mission Mangal would never have imagined that the Marathi version of this 52-second promo might get misunderstood for the film itself being dubbed in Marathi and therefore opposed by Raj Thackeray’s political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

Akshay, who plays mission Mars director Rakesh Dhawan in the film, is shown reciting a poem in the promo about how women scientists are grounded in culture and tradition in India but yet have the courage of their convictions to aim for Mars. The lyrics of the poem are, “Mangalsutra gale me hai , Aur Mangal pe hai najar gadi, Bharat ki beti ki udaan, Kal sara jag dohrauega, Ye Sindoor dur tak jaayega. The actor cut this promo titled Yeh Sindoor in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali and Telugu and posted in on social media yesterday. It began trending at once and the actor was praised for how fluently he spoke several Indian languages. However, Amey Khopkar of the MNS’s film wing and a prominent film producer himself took strong exception to it.

Thank you brother
The heart of science is trying something new. Experimenting. Breaking your own barriers.
In my own little way, I have tried to pay a tribute to the world of science. Please do forgive me in case of any errors https://t.co/42CtOBBf5g

— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) August 2, 2019

RECOMMENDED READ: Watch: Akshay Kumar in 'Yeh sindoor door tak jaayega' promo honours Vidya, Taapsee, Sonakshi, Kirti and Nithya - the women behind Mission Mangal

Under the impression that Mission Mangal was being dubbed and released across Maharashtra in Marathi as well, the MNS Chitrapat Sena of which Khopkar is the president said the Akshay-starrer would be unfair competition to Marathi films and also lead to them getting lesser number of screens. They would, therefore, oppose the release of Akshay’s space drama in Marathi.

Mission Mangal, which is based on the ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission called Mangalyaan, is produced by Cape of Good Films, Hope Productions and Fox Star Studios. Of the MNS Chitrapat Sena’s threat, the amused filmmakers said, “Only the promo is in Marathi. The film itself only has a Hindi version. It is all about space. And space has no regions.” With that, hopefully, good sense will prevail and everybody will have a hearty laugh!

Watch the Marathi promo here:

(Source: PeepingMoon)