Mission Mangal: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu's space film declared tax-free in Maharashtra

Mission Mangal, touted to be India’s first space film, has been spinning gold at the box office. Based on India’s first-ever  mission to Mars,  the film even crossed the Rs 150 crore milestone within two weeks of its release. In a new development, a statement from the PR team of the film states that now the film has been declared tax-free in Maharashtra. [caption id=“attachment_7157081” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Vidya Balan and Akshay Kumar in a still from Mission Mangal[/caption] Starring Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu ,  Vidya Balan , Sonakshi Sinha,  Nithya Menen ,  Kirti Kulhari,  HG Dattatreya, and Sharman Joshi, the film has been helmed by Jagan Shakti. Akshay essays the role of ISRO scientist Rakesh Dhawan, who, along with Vidya (portraying Tara Shinde), gets a team of scientists together to send a satellite to Mars.  Mission Mangal  is a fictional account of ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission or the Mangalyaan launched in 2013. Mission Mangal was released on 15 August, alongside John Abraham’s cop thriller  _Batla House_ , and Quentin Tarantino’s  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . However, the visually appealing space film rightly appealed to the masses, and opened to a staggering Rs. 29.16 crores on opening day, making it Akshay’s highest opener till date. In an interview to _Firstpost_ , Akshay, who has seen quite highs and lows in his career knows how fickle the industry, despite them, believes in delivering the best. He says, “I have gone through ups and downs at least three times, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I go through it again and the best way is to keep working, keep slogging hard. There is no guarantee of anything these days. It often happens that while watching my film before release, I feel yeh toh tod degi, mazaa aa jayega (this film of mine will be a blockbuster). But it doesn’t happen. I have reached this position after 30 years. You need to do hard work which is very important but luck makes a lot of difference. I believe in 70 per cent luck and 30 percent hard work ." _(Also read — Mission Mangal: India should be proud of this inspiring film, just like it is of Mangalyaan)_