At the India Today Woman Summit and Awards, actress and writer, Twinkle Khanna, popular in the social media world as Mrs Funnybones, was at her wittiest best. Twinkle fielded questions on her life as a writer, mother, wife and on her views about feminism, politicians and motherhood. Asked what she would have to say to Adityanath, who according to session hostess Koel Purie, "doesn't have an amazing track record for his statements on women", Twinkle quipped:
Women empowerment and feminism is a subject close to the heart of the actress-turned-writer, whose latest column explored sexual harassment at work.
Of late, Bollywood's leading ladies like Alia Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha and Deepika Padukone, have been flaunting T-shirts with feminist slogans. But there's a need to go beyond that, says Twinkle.
What is she doing on that front?
Pad Man is Twinkle's debut film production and it features Akshay Kumar in the title role. It is based on a real life story of Arunachalam Muruganantham, who devised a cheaper way to make sanitary pads for women in his village and also sells the machine which makes low-cost pads to NGOs to work towards women's hygiene.
Twinkle says she chased Muruganantham for eight months, and when they spoke, she found an instant connect with his one-liners and how he doesn't take himself very seriously. He even once told her, "You look like the actress, Raveena Tandon."
"I was about to drop his story," Twinkle quipped, adding another joke when she narrated how she was recently handed over a bag at home, and told that it had her "Pampers".
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