After taking up the cause of lack of proper sanitation in India with his film Toilet-Ek Prem Katha, Akshay Kumar is now busting the myths that surround menstruation with his film PadMan, which is a true story based on the life of a man called Arunachalam Muruganantham who has dedicated his life towards creation of cheap and good quality female sanitary products and raising awareness of basic hygiene for women during periods.
He spoke to us about the issue and not just as an actor promoting his film. He sounded very passionate towards the issue and credits it all to his wife Twinkle Khanna who first introduced him to the idea. PadMan is an adaptation of a short story written by Twinkle in her second book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad.
You have bagged a national award after a long time. You have completed more than 100 films in 27 years. How do you look at success now? How do you look back on your journey?
Akshay Kumar: Anybody would want to be in my shoes at any given point. I have been a lucky man. Lots of ups and downs but very lovely... enjoyable. I don’t have any regrets in my life. I am enjoying every bit of it now. I would just say my journey has been fantastic.
To survive in this industry you have to continuously reinvent yourself. So how did you do that?
AK: To survive you need to reinvent yourself, I learnt this very early in life. I used to do only action films, so the media used to always say, ‘This guy only does action films’. Producers and directors also never used to give me any other role to play. Whenever there was talk of making some action film, my name always came first. That’s when I started feeling ashamed of myself that I cannot do anything other than just action? That’s why long back I tried to do a comedy film called Hera Pheri and Priyadarshan was extremely kind to give me that role. From that day onwards I started setting my gaze on everything - be it a villain’s role like Ajnabi. Then I did romantic films like Dhadkan, Ek Rishta. Tried giving social messages. Actually I had tried this film called Khatta Mitha which didn’t do well. It was based on road construction. But now I think if I re-release it now it might do well. Because road corruption is a big thing.
“I still remember when the cops had stopped my car. He didn’t see that I was sitting behind. So he asked my driver -show me your papers, he also asked for road tax paper that’s when I popped my head out of the car and said first tell me where is the road? (Laughs). He also started laughing then we showed him all the papers. Roads are in a very bad shape. Look at the roads. It’s perfect to digest your food.”Akshay Kumar
You have worked with Priyadarshan in many films. You have also worked with a lot of new directors. So when you work with a new director, what is that process like?
AK: The process is great.
“I like working with new directors because when they sit here and read out their stories I can see the greed on their face to make a good film. My success ratio with new directors has been much higher than other people.”Akshay Kumar
They have all struggled and now they feel I can do anything, just give me a chance and that’s what I love and that is what an actor looks forward to in a director, that he is ready to give his life for the film and that’s why I just go ahead and do it. Till now I have been successful.
Most actors avoid films or even candid conversation about sanitary napkins or any other taboo topics. So how did you decide to work in a film like this?
AK: You will be glad to know that now social media is only talking about it.
“See even Hollywood has never made a film on sanitary pads. There has not been a single movie on it. They have made movies on condoms or sperms but never on a sanitary pad.”
It’s apparently a very taboo subject, a global taboo subject specially in India where 82% of Indian women don’t use sanitary pads because either they don’t know about it or they can’t afford it or they have been told by their mothers that using a rag cloth is much better than using a sanitary pad. Nobody is there to tell them that this can cause cervical cancer, that this can cause issues in conceiving because of diseases that come with it. The thing is everything is hush hush in our society. Nobody talks about these things. But it is high time.
“But I feel a day will come when a daughter will call her dad and ask him to get sanitary pads on his way home because she is having her periods. It should be as casual as saying get me a toothbrush. It’s just a product that you have to get. What’s the big deal?”
But we have made this into such a big thing, girls can’t go into the kitchen, they can’t step into a temple. It’s a natural thing. It is only because of this menstruation that you and I are born. I have to tell you this incident that happened with us. We were shooting at a place and we hired two local actors. First two days they worked really hard, third day they were supposed to hold a sanitary pad and say a dialogue on camera but they ran away. When they called him to ask him to come back he said ‘No we cannot touch such a sinful object’. So this is their thought process. There are so many people like this.
You are playing an uncommon common man. How important is it to challenge yourself so much?
AK: It is not a challenge, I am not challenging myself. It is a challenge to the norms. These things that are there in our society are wrong. Outside my vanity there were four men talking, I heard their conversation myself. One man say ‘Did you watch the PadMan trailer?’ the other man reacts, ‘Yeah, they have been talking about sanitary pads.’ Another man says, ‘Did you see Akshay Kumar attaching the sanitary pad to his panty and roaming around? How ya? Isn’t it great!’ So four men talking about sanitary pads, that is a big achievement for me. None of their forefathers would have done it.
When did you hear about periods and sanitary pads for the first time?
As a young boy I came to know at the age of 15/16 only, but in a more elaborate way, I touched a sanitary pad one and half or two years back.Akshay Kumar, Actor
AK: I didn’t know the depth of it. What India is going through. My wife told me so many things about it, so many realities about what it is and I believe if you want to make your country strong, you have to make your women strong.
Do you remember your first meeting with Arunachalam Muruganantham? How much did you borrow from his life for the film?
AK: He is such a nice person. He is a very playful person. I have taken 40 to 50% of his story - the kind of man he is, the way he presents himself.
You had spoken about how sanitary napkins should be free of cost but in our country because of corruption do you think it will reach the women at all?
AK: That I don’t know but
“women who are fighting to make it tax free, I would say don’t fight for them to be tax free but demand for them to be free of cost. It should be free especially in rural areas.”
The films that you have done till now like Airlift, Rustom, PadMan they are all biopics but not presented as biopics. Any particular reason for that?
AK: Because you have to give it a commercial base. I cannot make a biopic ‘biopic’, you have to have a little bit of masala, a commercial element like some songs, some ups and downs. Tell your story lightly and move away. See, I am not here to make a documentary film. I am here to make commercial film which people will understand. If you go in a village he will say if I had to watch a documentary then I would have watched Doordarshan at home but if you are showing me a film, then show me songs, show the hero trapped, the heroin comes, the villain catches her, some action happens, another song happens, climax scene happens and how the hero wins. I mean you need all this no? Ups and downs. Or what’s the fun of watching a film?
It’s the first time that we are seeing a Bollywood star going south, usually it’s the other way round. So what do you have to say about that?
AK: It’s a pleasure getting beaten up by Rajinikanth.
Have you ever thought of making a biopic on superstar Rajesh Khanna?
AK: First of all the the family also doesn’t want that. They just want to keep it like it is because for them their father is a father, they don’t want to bring it out like this.
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