Indie filmmaker Abhishek Saxena feels that he’s lost a battle even before his ‘period’ film Phullu hits theatres on June 16. All he set out to do really was to get a dialogue around menstruation going across rural India, in schools, colleges and panchayats, in an attempt to rid minds of the stigma around a woman’s monthly cycle. His target audience includes young boys and girls, as well as women who can’t afford movie tickets and have never heard of a thing called a ‘pad’.
But the Central Board of Film Certification’s decision to give Phullu an ‘Adults’ certificate has come like a slap in the face.
While Abhishek has his hands tied, I feel infuriated by the CBFC’s call, as a woman. What’s ‘adult’ about periods? Or does the CBFC find menstruation just as hard to fathom as homosexuality?
With all the hype around Akshay Kumar’s Padman, a film based on the same theme, but with a different character and storyline, I wonder if the CBFC will manage to remain unbiased closer to the release of the big Bollywood flick. Abhishek Saxena is certain that Padman wouldn’t suffer the same fate as Phullu.
I’m sure that the CBFC will not give Akshay Kumar’s film Padman an ‘Adult’ rating. Because he’s Akshay Kumar and whatever he shows is good and worthy of being seen as a ‘public interest’ message. If he gets an ‘A’ he’ll get Modi ji to tweet about it and the CBFC will fall in line. But I’m sure he’ll get a U/A rating, so it won’t even come to that. When Padman releases, I’m sure that the CBFC will pitch it as an ‘education’ film, even though our film is just as much about menstruation and the taboo around it, as theirs.Abhishek Saxena, Filmmaker
The film’s lead actor Sharib Ali Hashmi is happy that a big flick is also trying to spread the same message as them. He masks his disappointment a little better than his director.
I’m very very happy that films are being made on the subject of menstruation. The reach of our small film will be limited. But a big film like Padman will have ten times the viewership. But our message is the same and it’ll reach far and wide through both the films. The more eyeballs our common message gets, the better. We’re not even trying to compete with Padman, which is a biopic based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham ji, while Phullu is a fictional character created by Abhishek Saxena and the film’s writer Shaheen Iqbal. The only advantage we have, if you wish to call it that, is that we’re hitting theatres first. Our main focus is on the message the film is giving, though it’s not preachy at all. Phullu is full of drama, romance, humour and tragedy.Sharib Ali Hashmi
So why is Abhishek Saxena not raising a storm about Phullu’s unfortunate ‘A’? Phullu is too close to release (June 16) and he doesn’t want the industry and audiences to think that he’s resorting to cheap publicity. But more than that, he feels helpless arguing with the CBFC and its chief Pahlaj Nihalani, who hasn’t even viewed the film himself.
Phullu has no profanity, no smoking, nothing that warrants an Adult certification. It’s just that people taking calls at the CBFC are not evolved and educated enough to see the importance of this film. They’ve grown up with a stigma around menstruation, have never discussed it in their homes, and think that it’s a forbidden ‘adult’ topic. They’ll never understand that our aim is to break this very taboo. Mr Nihalani hasn’t watched the film. I know this because he wasn’t there at the screening. But we are not strong enough to fight this, not now.Abhishek Saxena
Believe it or not, the trailer of Phullu was also given an ‘A’ rating initially. In the process of fighting that, Saxena missed the chance to launch it with the Arjun and Shraddha Kapoor starrer Half Girlfriend.
The small budget ‘period’ story was shot in 14 days flat. While a lot of young boys won’t get to watch Phullu, a film that in my opinion should ideally be a part of the sex education curriculum in urban and rural schools alike, Sharib intends to take his 10-year-old son along for the screening.
Interestingly, both Abhishek and Sharib, had never bought a sanitary napkin, till they were married. In fact, they barely even knew about menstruation till their late teens. But the hushed awkwardness around the whole pad buying process is what triggered the idea of Phullu.
Abhishek’s trigger point for making this film was the day when he went to the chemist to buy a pack of sanitary napkins for the very first time. This was after his marriage. So when he saw the pad being wrapped in newspaper and a black packet, he got thinking about why we squirm even at the mention of this natural process. I too had to muster up a great deal of courage to even ask the shopkeeper for it. I grew up in a conservative family and felt very awkward doing this. At home, every time a sanitary napkin ad came on TV, someone changed the channel. Actually I did Phullu only to get rid of my own awkwardness and apprehensions. So the film has helped me do that. I really hope that it does the same thing for audiences.Sharib Ali Hashmi
If it’s ok to bombard us with sanitary napkin ads on TV all day long, how does a film talking about menstruation, stand against our sanskars? Or is the CBFC suggesting that we should now be addressing male and female adolescence as ‘adult’ topics?
Going a bit closer to Phullu himself, he’s no Arunachalam Muruganantham. But there are many like the famous Coimbatore entrepreneur, Rohit Rajput of Mathura for example. Abhishek says that Rajput has been making ‘the cheapest sanitary napkin’ for the last 26 years, but no one knows him.
So far “jo biwi se kare pyaar” has only been about sexist domesticity. But Phullu is all set to change that with this idea at heart- Jo aurat ka dard nahin samajhta, bhagwan usse mard nahin samajhta (one who doesn’t understand a woman’s pain, god doesn’t consider him to be a man).
There’s nothing about that sentiment that needs censorship Mr Nihalani, neither as Phullu nor as Padman.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)