Sumith Prasad
Benisha Mudhi is an Indian billionaire who sponsors the space research of Paula and Hadi in Netflix’s German science fiction series ‘The Signal.’ Mudhi is initially introduced as a highly influential and immensely wealthy entrepreneur and visionary who seeks to expand the potential of humankind through space exploration. Paula and Hadi try their best to figure out the mystery behind a strange sound they hear while they are in the International Space Station for the Indian businesswoman. Even though Mudhi projects herself as a role model, Paula’s husband Sven and their daughter Charlie unravel the true face and intentions of the former to the world!
The Creation of Benisha Mudhi
Benisha Mudhi is a businesswoman who reminds us of several real-life entrepreneurs who have ventured into the world of space research, ranging from SpaceX’s Elon Musk to Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos, with Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit’s Richard Branson in the mix as well. Mudhi, like Bezos, is significantly rich, which enables her to fund missions that are projected to expand the scope of human knowledge. She also presents herself as a revolutionary or world-changer, similar to Elon. However, Mudhi is a fictional creation of Florian David Fitz and his team of writers, without any explicit connection with real-life figures.
Fitz and his team conceived Mudhi as a personification of greed. ‘The Signal’ explores the ideological war fought between scientists and the billionaires behind them. Paula is able to travel to space and conduct research to find possibly an extraterrestrial object only because there is someone like Mudhi to back her, without any promise of concrete results. The sponsor, however, traps Paula within her shallow and greedy interests as Mudhi wants to take advantage of the astronaut’s findings all by herself. The businesswoman doesn’t want to share the fortunes the astronaut’s discovery will enable her to make.
The world is filled with individuals who ultimately aim to fill their pockets with the pretense of expanding or reforming the world with utmost greed. Mudhi can be seen as a representative of them. She doesn’t want to expand the horizons of human knowledge as she claims. She is even ready to kill over 170 innocent individuals, including Paula and Hadi, just to ensure that she will be in a position to capitalize on the astronauts’ discoveries when they should be shared with the world to expand the realm of science and known space.
‘The Signal’ ends with a reminder that knowledge should be shared among the human civilization, without allowing people like Mudhi to lock the same up in their cupboards for their personal gains.
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