The sci-fi spectacle Project Hail Mary has been making waves globally, but for Indian audiences, there is more to the film than just space exploration and survival. Producer Aditya Sood recently shared that the Ryan Gosling-starrer contains several hidden nods to India that most viewers might have missed during their first watch.
During a recent visit to the country, Sood teased that the film includes a really great, very subtle Easter egg involving a chessboard. Highlighting India’s deep-rooted connection to the game, he explained, “Because India is a big chess-playing community, we have one really great, very subtle chess Easter egg in the movie that someone’s going to figure out at some point. There’s one chessboard in the movie—you have to look very carefully—and there’s a position in that chessboard that actually has real historical significance.”
The Indian connections don’t stop at board games. Directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller surprised Sood by embedding a personal tribute to his family within the movie’s script. A young girl who appears in the film and asks about the Petrova line is named Rekha, after Sood’s mother. Additionally, a scientist in the film was named Narendra, in honour of his father.
While some edits resulted in the removal of his father’s full name, a touching visual tribute remained. The producer shared, “They didn’t tell me this, but they put a little badge on his jacket that says Dr. N. Sood. It was one of the very last visual effects they added. I didn’t tell my parents, and they were completely blown away when they saw it.” Even Gosling’s own character joins the tribute, as his spacesuit jacket features the Indian flag.
Attentive fans may also spot a poster featuring the word Dhanyawaad (Thank You) inside the Hail Mary spaceship. Also, the voice of the spaceship belongs to British-Indian actress Priya Kansara, adding another layer to the film’s multicultural fabric.
These details come at a time when Project Hail Mary is enjoying immense success in the region. The film has earned ₹53 crore within just two weeks at the Indian box office. It currently stands as the highest-grossing Hollywood release in India over the last four months and has officially become the top-grossing sci-fi film in the country.
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