Taapsee Pannu has a message for the critics of the first poster of Mission Mangal which courted controversy for giving Akshay Kumar a bigger display than his women colleagues: star value is a “brutal truth” that must be accepted.

Taapsee said instead of questioning the poster, people need to be the change they want to see. The actor plays Kritika Aggarwal, one of the female scientists spearheading India’s mission to send a spacecraft to orbit Mars in the film, slated to be released on Independence Day.

Akshay plays Rakesh Dhawan, a scientist, who is in-charge of the mission.

“The problem is not from this end (the film). The people who are not happy about it, they need to do something because there’s a reason behind it… The star value is such… That’s a brutal truth that we need to accept and then think that there is no point questioning it. Be the reason to change this truth,” Taapsee said.