Chandrayaan-3 cost less than Barbie, Oppenheimer & Adipurush
Cinema personalities, including Akshay Kumar, Chiranjeevi, Jr NTR and Sunny Deol, on Wednesday congratulated the country and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the historic achievement of Chandrayaan-3’s landing on the moon.
India’s Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm on Wednesday, launching the country to an exclusive club of four and making it the first country to land on the uncharted surface.
In his X post, Kumar said a billion hearts were saying thank you to ISRO.
“You’ve made us so proud. Lucky to be watching India make history. India is on the moon, we are over the moon. #Chandrayaan3,” the “OMG 2” star wrote.
Harking back to the popular dialogue from his 2001 film Gadar, actor-MP Deol said: “What a proud moment. #Hindustanzindabad tha hai or rahega.” “A momentous feat in the history of India’s space exploration. Proud!!!” he posted on X.
Chiranjeevi described the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 a “momentous achievement for India”, quipping that a holiday on the Moon may not be a distant dream now.
“#Chandrayaan3 registers an unprecedented and spectacular success!!! History is Made today!! I join over a Billion proud Indians in celebrating and congratulating our Indian scientific community!!
This clearly paves the way for more invaluable discoveries on the Moon and more scientific missions in days to come,” the veteran star wrote on the microblogging site.
“My heartiest congratulations to @ISRO on a successful soft landing of #Chandrayaan3 mission on the surface of the moon. As always, you are the pride of India,” wrote “RRR” star Jr NTR.
Devgn said he was “proud, amazed, excited, and honoured” to be living this moment of history.
“Bharat Mata Ki Jai. #Chandrayaan3 @isro,” he posted on X.
Prasoon Joshi, lyricist and CBFC chairperson, shared a Hindi poem on the landmark achievement. “Congratulations @isro on #Chandrayaan3Landing.
Other bollywood actors joined in to laud India’s successful space mission.
India’s lunar blockbuster, Chandrayaan-3, which cost the nation Rs 615 crore, is cheaper than the dud film, Adipurush (budget: Rs 700 crore), and if the amount is converted to US dollars ($75 million), it is cheaper than the two Hollywood movies ruling the global box office today — Greta Gerwig’s Barbie ($145 million) and Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ ($100 million).
In fact, Nolan’s 2013 space movie, Interstellar, which is set in the future and features an Indian solar-powered drone, among other spectacular machines, cost $165 million to produce. Note that the budget is not inflation-adjusted.
While on the subject of space travel-inspired film, it may be worth remembering that Ridley Scott’s Matt Damon-starrer The Martian (2015) was produced for $106 million.
Chandrayaan-3 is also cheaper than the average listed price of any of the Boeing aircraft, which Air India has recently placed an order for: 737 MAX ($128.25 million each), 787-9 ($292.50 million) and 777.9 ($442.20 million).
Air-India has ordered 220 of these aircraft, and if we check out the prices of the 250 Airbus planes it has sealed the deal for, then also Chandrayaan-3 is cheaper.
An Airbus 320neo is priced at $110.60 million each; Chandrayaan-3 also cost less than an Airbus 321neo ($129.50 million), and is less than a quarter of the price of an A350-1000 ($366.50 million) and A350-900 ($317.40 million).
And if likes were to be compared, then ISRO’s ground-breaking mission to the dark side of the Moon, the lunar South Pole, cost way less than Russia’s failed Luna 25 (estimated at $200 million or more than Rs 1,600 crore) and of course China’s first Chang’e probe (1.4 billion yuan or $219 million). (Agencies)