The Red Planet seems to be in everybody’s orbit these days. If US space agency NASA has a long-term programme of sending humans to Mars, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos’ ‘Blue Origin’ has set its eyes on it and maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk, with his speed vehicle SpaceX, has unveiled plans to reach Mars by 2022.

India is not very far behind in this race to study the planet, which is widely believed to hold the potential to support human life. In 2013, it achieved what many advanced nations could not — send a space probe, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) at a meagre cost of ₹450 crore and succeeded in the first attempt to orbit the planet.

Colonising it, trying to find life and map the planet are all in the realm of the next two decades with the Russian, European and Chinese space agencies also in the race.

Therefore, the story of India’s Mars odyssey, Mangalyaan, was waiting to be told. Bollywood director Nikkhil Advani, maker of films such as Kal Ho Na Ho and Chandni Chowk to China , plans to do just that.

He recently took to Twitter to announce plans to bring to the silver screen the life of the man who led the project — K Radhakrishnan, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Advani tweeted: “To infinity and beyond: Proud to announce a story we’ve worked to bring to Emmay Entertainment, Mission to Mars.”

68-year-old Radhakrishnan, who was Chairman of ISRO from 2009 to 2014, was instrumental in the launch of MOM in November 2013. The probe has been orbiting the Red Planet since September 2014.

India’s inter-planetary exploration and research dreams have been ignited by the success of Mangalyan. The mission resulted in many achievements for the country. India joined the exclusive club of four space agencies to orbit Mars, the others being the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency.

The film-maker was reportedly fascinated by Indian space scientists’ accomplishment — succeeding in making MOM the cheapest and the quickest. For Advani, the life journey of Radhakrishan narrated in his book My Odyssey also offers several insights into the man, the successes, the struggles and the career in ISRO, to take audiences on a odyssey on the large screen.

Space scientist-cum-artiste Interestingly, the bearded Radhakrishnan is also an accomplished Ccarnatic music vocalistand a Kathakali artiste, with stage performances to his credit. Hailing from Thrissur district of Kerala, he worked his way up to the highest position in the space establishment. En route, he did a Master’s in management from IIM-Bangalore and a PhD from IIT-Kharagpur.

He got a chance to exhibit his leadership and enterprise skills during 2002-2007 when he was given the responsibility of shaping what is now the Indian National Centre for Ocean and Information Services (INCOIS). It started as a small facility in a rented building in the picturesque Nandagiri Hills of Hyderabad, under the Department of Earth Sciences.

Radhakrishnan had then just completed a stint at the National Remote Sensing Centre under ISRO. When this writer met him during those formative years, he was passionate about building the institute into an international centre.

Over the years, Radhakrishnan has revelaed his many personas — a ‘gutsy scientist’, a manager and an artiste. Radhakrishnan, who used to visit Tirumala before every ISRO lauch, also braved criticism for the failure of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), the long-term launch vehicle of ISRO, to push ahead with MOM.

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