But Kirti Kulhari isn’t amused when called Kriti; Taapsee Pannu, Vidya Balan laugh off jokes
Akash Bhatnagar (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 19, 2019)

Akshay Kumar who unveiled his Mission Mangal on Thursday, took centrestage as the self-appointed emcee, quipping tongue-in-cheek that it was to not ‘offend’ anyone. It was an obvious reference to Kangana Ranaut and her war of words with a journalist during a recent media interaction for her upcoming film, Judgementall Hai Kya. He addressed the controversy directly, likening the relationship between an actor and the media as that between a husband and wife. “We need you and you need us,” he pointed out, hoping the situation will be resolved soon.

Bowing to his ‘army’ of leading ladies—Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Sonakshi Sinha, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menen—Mr Khiladi joked that working with the five actresses hadn’t been easy because they treated him like a menu card, ordering different meals from his residence daily during the shoot. The banter continued with him ribbing Taapsee as a promoter of a jewellery brand in her desi bejewelled avatar.

When a reporter asked Vidya if she saw a National Award coming her way with this film, he butted in to say, “When Vidya was born, the nurse said ‘Congratulations, aapke yahaan National Award hua hai’.” There was an awkward moment with Kirti when he accidentally referred to her as ‘Kriti’, not once but twice. The actress responded by saying that she understands that he has worked with two ‘Kritis’ recently, but she wasn’t one of them. When Nithya tried to play mediator, Kirti pointed out that the other actors in the film didn’t mix up her name. Meanwhile, when asked if there had been any catfights, Vidya put rumours of tension on set to rest by saying, “We all are extremely secure.” Akshay, when asked about the film’s box office clash with Batla House, echoed John Abraham’s response, “Make some noise for the Desi Boys.”

Mr Khiladi then went on to inform that the budget of ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission had been Rs 450 crore, lesser than that of his film 2.0 which had Rs 500 crore invested in it. On the subject of money, when quizzed on his contribution to the Assam Flood Relief Fund, the actor said he doesn’t believe in expressing sadness on Twitter and hinted that even on the 20th anniversary of the Kargil War, he would show his support for the army by “doing something”.

The curtains came down with him saying if possible, he would like to go on Mars for a family vacation, also the moon and eventually even the sun.