On Chandrayaan 3- Interstellar cost, minister says 2 Bollywood actors charge ₹100 crore
Union minister Jitendra Singh said a Hollywood movie on space and moon costs more than ₹600 crore what has been the budget of Chandrayaan 3.
Union minister Dr Jitendra Singh commented on Chandrayaan 3's low cost and said he does not see movies but he has been told that two big actors of the Bollywood film industry charge ₹100 crore per film. The approximate cost of Chandrayaan 3 which has now successfully landed on the south pole of the moon making India the first ever country to do so was ₹600 crore.

"The cost of Chandrayaan-3 is merely ₹600 crore, whereas a Hollywood film on space and moon costs more than ₹600 crore. I don't see movies often nowadays but I was told by someone that one or two big actors now charge ₹100 crore per film (in Bollywood), much above the ₹5-6 lakh a star like Dilip Kumar charged for Devdas," Union science and technology minister Jitendra Singh said in Indore.
The low cost of the massive Moon Mission has been noticed by Elon Musk. the world's richest person, who reacted to a tweet which said Chandrayaan 3's cost was less than Interstellar, a sci-fi movie by Christopher Nolan. "Good for India," Elon Musk tweeted to a post which said the cost of Chandrayaan 3 was $75 million, less than Interstellar's budget of $165 million.
Former Isro chief G Madhavan Nair said only Indian scientists can devise such a cost-effective mission because Indian scientists live a very normal life and none of them are millionaires. "The wages paid to the scientists, technicians, and other staff at ISRO are hardly one-fifth of what is given globally. So that gives an advantage," Nair said.
Chandrayaan 3 latest: Rover traversed 8 metres on the lunar surface
Two days after the successful launch of the Moon Mission, Isro has confirmed that rover Pragyan has rolled down from Vikram lander by solar power and traversed 8 metres on the lunar surface. Now Pragyan will carry out several experiments to understand lunar soil. Chandrayaan 3 has 14 earth days equivalent to 1 lunar day to carry out the experiments. However, the Isro scientists hope that the lander and the rover will come back to life again when the sun rises on the moon.
(With agency inputs)
ABOUT THE AUTHORPoulomi GhoshPoulomi Ghosh is a journalist with Hindustan Times, New Delhi.

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