Mission Mangal, which will be releasing on 15 August, is based on the real-life story of ISRO scientists who spearheaded India’s first interplanetary expedition to Mars. While the successful expedition was credited largely to the women at ISRO, the film’s poster, however, faced backlash due to the importance it gave to Akshay Kumar’s character. When asked about his eclipsing everyone else in the poster, his co-actor Vidya Balan jumped to his defence saying it was “because men are from Mars.”
ThePrint asks: Does Bollywood need an Akshay Kumar to sell women’s success stories?
India’s response to Bechdel Test should be Akshay Kumar Test: Find a movie about women empowerment that doesn’t star him
Senior journalist
In the US, they use something called the Bechdel Test, originally conceived by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, to measure women’s representation in fiction. In order to pass it, a work of fiction must have two female characters talk to each other about something other than a man.
The site Five Forty-Eight looked at 1,615 Hollywood films released from 1990 to 2013 and found that less than 50 per cent of the films cleared even this low bar. In Bollywood, they may start something called the Akshay Kumar Test. Find a movie about women empowerment, which doesn’t star Akshay Kumar, and the answer will hover around the same percentage. From Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) to Pad Man (2017), from Naam Shabana (2017) to the forthcoming Mission Mangal, if there is a story to be told about women finding their voices, be sure Akshay Kumar is the ventriloquist.
If there is any slack to be picked up, there’s always Amitabh Bachchan, waiting to interpret his daughter’s single status to potential suitors in Piku (2015) or explain the rage of a molested woman in Pink (2016). The message from the male-dominated power hierarchy in the industry is this: we can give you powerful roles, dear ladies, but make sure you know who the boss is. Much like the top billing Deepika Padukone first got for Happy New Year (2014). Ahead of Shah Rukh Khan, but yes, thanks to him in a film produced by him.
Also read: From Padman to PM Modi interview, Akshay Kumar is on a nation-building project
How does it matter if Akshay Kumar is lead in a film about women scientists? The story the film is selling is Akshay Kumar anyway
Contributing editor, ThePrint
If Canadian citizen Akshay Kumar can portray himself as an Indian nationalist to save his acting career, why can’t he be the lead actor in a film about women scientists? The issue is not Indian nationalism or women scientists. The issue is Akshay Kumar’s career.
Like successful politicians, successful actors craft a narrative about themselves. When you go to see an Akshay Kumar movie, you are going to see Akshay Kumar more than the actor he is portraying. And mostly, Akshay Kumar is playing Akshay Kumar, he can’t get into the role he is actually portraying.
To begin with, Akshay Kumar was an action hero. His skill was to throw himself around, do dangerous stunts. He was a dishoom-dishoom guy. Then he started doing these silly roles portraying silly young men in so-called comedy films like Housefull.
As these narratives aged, Akshay Kumar found refuge in nationalism and social causes. So Akshay Kumar will sell us sanitary and toilet hygiene, and he is soldier, spy, anti-colonial rebel, and so on. In other words, Akshay Kumar is trying to mirror Modi.
So, how does it matter if he is going to play the patronising mansplaining lead in a film about women scientists? The story the film is selling is Akshay Kumar anyway.
No film industry really needs a man to sell women’s success stories, but producers get them for big bucks
Senior assistant editor, ThePrint
No film industry really needs a man to sell women’s success stories. Women make up nearly half of the entertainment industry and women’s stories are just as human, if not more. A success story of a person can be portrayed on screen just by people of that person’s gender.
In comparison to Hollywood, our homegrown film industry is still quite patriarchal. This mindset creates a mentality where movie producers and directors assume a man is needed as a lead to bring in the big bucks. Mission Mangal is not officially touted to be a story of women ISRO engineers, and it features Akshay Kumar prominently as the lead. The actor takes up half of a section on the poster, while the other half contains all the women who took India to Mars. Mind you, the actresses portraying these women are also successful and big. What’s more, the trailer also shows scenes where Vidya Balan’s character cooks and serves puri in ISRO, as Akshay Kumar’s character explains the work she is doing.
Such portrayal simply ends up perpetuating the same stereotypes we hope movies like these would break. Exalting a male actor to such heights in stories that deal with obstacles, suffering, hardships, innovation, and success of women is sexism perpetrated by Bollywood at its highest levels.
Also read: ISRO’s women scientists who busted ‘Mars is for men’ and other such myths with MOM
Akshay Kumar should be applauded for using his fame to bring women’s stories into mainstream cinema
Journalist, ThePrint
The criticism that Akshay Kumar received after the release of Mission Mangal’s poster was extremely unfair to the actor. In fact, the actor should be applauded for taking an initiative to use his success and kickstart something that hasn’t been done yet.
Bollywood has also earlier used the male protagonist to narrate the success stories of women. The movie Dangal by Aamir Khan is an example of this.
A number of biopics based on the lives of women have been made in Indian cinema, but it has largely been restricted to sports or politics. The field of science and technology hasn’t got its due share in this movement. So, the initiative taken by Akshay Kumar should undoubtedly be applauded.
Also, it is not fair to pass a verdict on a film before watching it in its entirety. This film presents us with an opportunity to show society the day-to-day hurdles woman scientist face in their professional and personal lives. Efforts like those by Akshay Kumar should be encouraged so that more films on women’s stories make it to the mainstream.
There have been many woman-centric Hindi films that have not relied on a man. Think Kahaani, English Vinglish, Queen
Associate Editor, ThePrint
The operative word here is ‘need’. And to that, my answer is no, Bollywood does not need any man to sell women’s success stories. There have been enough instances of woman-centric Hindi films that have not relied on a male lead for any kind of promotional material. Think Vidya Balan’s Kahaani and Kahaani 2, Sridevi’s English Vinglish, Kangana Ranaut’s Queen or Anushka Sharma’s NH 10, to name a few.
Having said that, what’s important here is intent. What is the intent of the filmmakers in telling this story? And it’s important to note here that Akshay Kumar’s production company has co-produced the film. Going by the promotional material, it seems they want to be seen as telling a feminist story, but are stopping short of actually doing so. It’s not surprising, given Kumar’s recent efforts to portray himself as the nationalist, conscientious actor India didn’t know it needed, but it’s a pity. Filmmakers often use the audience as their excuse to make shoddy films with questionable messaging, or spotlight men even when the movie’s not about them, but frankly, the audience has moved on. It’s about time more filmmakers did, too.
By Revathi Krishnan and Fatima Khan