Chandrayaan-3 landing: CM Mamata Banerjee’s gaffe leads to filmmaker Rakesh Roshan trending on social media

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday led to filmmaker Rakesh Roshan to trend on social media because of a gaffe in her speech congratulating Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Chandrayaan-3 for achieving the historic feat of landing on Moon's south pole.

At a public event, CM Mamata Banerjee in her congratulatory message said, “Amaar mone ache chaand er matite jokhon tara pouche chilen, Indira Gandhi jiggesh korechilen Rakesh Roshan kay, j Udhar se kaise lag raha hian, aasman se kaise laag raja hain, mahakash se India ko? (I remember, when they landed on the moon, PM Indira Gandhi had asked Rakesh Roshan [sic] that how does India look from there. how does it look from space)"

See the video here

The guffaw, of course did not go down well with social media users. Everyone was quick to notice and memes followed. Netizens sarcastically pointed out that it was Rakesh Sharma and not Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan's father who went to the space.

Notably, Rakesh Sharma is the first Indian who went to space. However, Sharma has never been to the moon.

Rakesh Sharma's conversation with then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was from space. "Sare jahan see accha (better than the entire world) ," Rakesh Sharma had said replying to Indira Gandhi's question, "Upar se Bharat kaisa dikhta hai aapko (How does India look like from space?)."

The faux pas did not only target CM Mamata Banerjee, it also led to filmmaker Rakesh Roshan trending on social media.

Plethora of memes followed where Rakesh Roshan's face was superimposed onto that of an astronaut's suit.

See the tweets here

Mamata Banerjee, on Wednesday expressed pride in India’s scientific and technological progress and said “Hail India, Jai Hind!”.

“Hail Chandrayaan-3! Hail its stupendous success!! Hail ISRO!! Hail our nation's magnificent achievement in sending an exploration mission successfully to the Moon!! Our scientists have testified to the country's scientific and technological progress." read a post by the West Bengal CM on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"India is now in the super league of space. Sincere congratulations to all the proud architects and stakeholders of the expedition. Let us celebrate the majestic moment and pray for further advances of India in the frontier areas of knowledge and applications. Hail India, Jai Hind!,” she added.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander module successfully landed on the moon’s South Pole on Wednesday evening, making India the first country to have achieved the historic feat.