Mission Mangal takes off on Twitter

Twitter is where moviegoers can come Tweet-to-Tweet with their favourite stars, get breaking news updates about the most-awaited films and penetrate the picture-perfect promotional cycle to get real, unvarnished insights from behind the scenes. Case in point: the rocketing success of of the Independence Day, multi-starrer release #MissionMangal, on the platform. Based on the true story of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s 2013 Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan, Fox Star Studios’ Mission Mangal partnered with Twitter, leveraging the platform’s strengths, and also cleverly made the most of pop-cultural touchstones to reach its audiences and both, engage and entertain them. 

On July 17th, Akshay Kumar, the film’s leading man, launched Mission Mangal’s custom Twitter emoji, in time for World Emoji Day. 

A day prior, the actor Tweeted out a call for users to send in their ideas for what the custom emoji should be. 

The response was phenomenal. 

Fox Star Studios also rode the wave of #SareeTwitter, a viral hashtag at the time, that paid homage to the classic Indian garment. 

Amidst promotions, as ISRO prepared to launch #Chandraayan2, its second lunar expedition, there was mutual goodwill between the real and fictional space missions.

One week before the movie’s release, the female cast of the film, including Vidya Balan, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menen treated users to a rollicking live conversation in the #BlueRoom. They talked with social media sensation Prajakta Koli about the film, the place of women in science, spilled secrets from sets, and generally played goofy. They also answered audience questions with the designated hashtag #AskTeamMissionMangal.

Cast members Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha despite not being physically present for the broadcast, harnessed Twitter’s love for cheeky, spontaneous conversations by Tweeting in their questions and reactions, thus ramping up audience delight even further. 

The conversation was captured in this Twitter Moment.