"Mission Mangal" has received a positive response from the audiences, and Sonakshi Sinha says the film's patriotic spirit worked in its favour. "Mission Mangal", directed by Jagan Shakti, is based on India's 2013 Mission to Mars. Released on Independence Day, the film has clocked Rs 193.14 crore in India.

The movie, fronted by Akshay Kumar, features leading female actors Vidya Balan, Sonakshi, Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Nithya Menon. Sonakshi believes the movie was not an attempt to promote women-centric cinema but was made with an aim to highlight India's achievements.

"The film is about mission to Mars and Mars too was a character in the film. It is India's first space film. Whether you are seeing five minutes extra of some artiste and less of other artiste, it shouldn't be a concern.

"I don't think these things should matter as we are trying to do something different, the idea was to bring out the achievement than (looking at) the screen time of actors. We all our proud of this film," Sonakshi, who plays the role of young scientist Eka Gandhi in the film, told PTI.

The actor is happy that a movie featuring several women actors is doing well commercially but believes the audience is still not willing to spend money on a female- driven film.

"There have been few exceptions where films with female protagonist have done well commercially. I don't want to call 'Mission Mangal' a female-centric film. I believe films are films. It is a start in the right direction. Audience have to be more accepting of such films." 

Sonakshi added that the presence of a superstar like Akshay has contributed a lot to the commercial success of the movie.

"Akshay sir's presence has definitely propelled the numbers (for 'Mission Mangal') as he is such a big star. Even if this film would have been made with none of us it would have done really well maybe not as well as this one ('Mission Mangal') because it speaks of a very big achievement of our country. And anything that has patriotic spirit and is well-made people accept that," she said.

"Mission Mangal" also features Sharman Joshi and veteran actor H G Dattatreya.