A quicksilver conversationalist, Twinkle Khanna’s alter ego - Mrs. Funnybones unfailingly manifests itself even in person. When I ask her about her first film as a producer, PadMan, she is quick to complete my sentence as I stutter before taking the full name of Arunachalam Muruganantham, the social entrepreneur who invented the low-cost sanitary pad making machine and on whom the movie is based. “Everyone pauses before they take his name and I fill it in,” says Twinkle.
From an emphatic nod to a free and fair environment for producers in the wake of Padmaavat to how she first imagined PadMan as a smaller film, Twinkle Khanna spoke to The Quint ahead of her film’s release on 9 February.
How difficult was it to convince Murugunantham to fictionalise his life? We hear he was very elusive. What about him fascinated you apart from his revolutionary idea?
Twinkle Khanna: I came across his story when I was doing some research. At that point I was writing my second book. I recall that I just decided that this was a compelling story. I dropped my second book and I began writing Murugunantham’s story, exactly the way it is in the story, where he’s on the cycle and he’s done his act of testing out his sanitary pad. I wrote a couple of chapters and I sent it to my editor and I said, “This is what I want to do.” There was a lot of content about him, but in obscure places. I began calling him and I sent him emails and he just would not respond. Now that I had written about him, I had a lot at stake. So I just called him relentlessly, no matter where I was in the world. One day I called him when I was on the outskirts of London. He picked up and he saw the double plus 44 number and he must have thought I’m a journalist from BBC or something (throws her head back and laughs). He tried to fob me off by saying that he was in London and that he couldn’t meet me. So I told him I’m driving down tomorrow. So I drove down, met him, spent a couple of hours with him. And I convinced him that he can trust me with his story.
“The last film he saw, was Sholay (laughs). After I met him I was even more convinced because here I found a man who was doing something very serious but he didn’t take himself as seriously. There was a whimsy about him and he had these quirky one-liners. It wasn’t confined to him just making a machine or his vision about women empowerment. It was his totalitarian view of life that I found fascinating. The journey began and I wrote the book and then finally we made the movie.”
Why did you set the film in Madhya Pradesh since Muruganantham’s real story unfurled in southern India?
Twinkle: We were looking for a place where it would be very obvious that it’s a religious town. When we found Maheshwar, it was on the Ghats and it had all these temples. We wanted something which was very conservative in that manner. It would create more conflict in the story. I spoke to him about it and he was completely aware that this was the process. Whether it was the introduction of the character of Sonam helping PadMan or the backdrop, we had to fictionalise his life to make it more commercial. If I had to do a documentary on his life, the reach would be limited. Art, in any form should hold the viewer’s attention, to get its message across. If I give my children a sermon, they look at me like I’m a TV on mute. If I have to make people listen, I have to manage to interest and entertain them.
It must have been tricky to make a commercial film that reaches out to the masses with a subject that people still don’t talk about openly - menstruation? Did you fear that families would be embarrassed to come to the theatre and watch the film together?
Twinkle: It is Balki’s skill. We followed Murugunatham’s story as closely as possible. Aside from the fact that we are talking about a taboo topic, there’s nothing uncomfortable about it. When the viewer goes to see this movie and even when they go with a family, for the first few minutes you may feel a little unsettled since we are addressing something that has never been addressed on the screen before. After that you are engrossed in the movie because not only is it about menstruation, it is about the triumphs and highs and lows of the journey of an inventor. Even if you took away the fact that he invented a pad, it’s still the story of an inventor.
“We have been completely unapologetic about the fact that the film is about menstruation or that it is about a sanitary pad. We have not tried to camouflage that it any way but Balki has written it so skilfully that I don’t think anyone would be embarrassed, sitting with their grandmother or with their teenage daughter. Groundbreaking subjects in cinema will always involve some unease but that’s how art pushes boundaries.”
As a producer, one is required to take some tough calls. This is your first film as one. What was that one difficult decision that you had to make for PadMan?
Twinkle: Largely it was a smooth process. It was fate that was pushing this film forward...the way that things kept falling into place. We never thought of any other director except Balki. Within a couple of days, he was very enthusiastic and on board. The only tough call that we had to take during this movie was whether we were releasing it with Padmaavat or not; to defer it by two weeks. We took a call to leave a solo week for Padmaavat in solidarity and also there could have been disadvantages to both films in case of a clash.
What about Balki made you think that he is the best choice to helm the film?
Twinkle: I think after seeing Balki’s films, I felt that he can see things from two perspectives very clearly - the male and the female. He also understood the importance of what we were doing. His aesthetic sense is very refined. We didn’t even really meet anyone else.
If not Akshay Kumar, who would have been your second choice as the lead for PadMan?
Twinkle: (Takes a long pause and smiles) Honestly when I first started, I wanted to make PadMan a smaller film, a more arthouse film with a lesser known cast. As I was going through that process and I started talking to Akshay, we also realised one thing - if you have someone who is idolised by the large part of this population and he is holding a sanitary pad in his hand, then the taboos are dismissed by almost half, right there. For so many people who look up to him, it will be like normalising a situation. Then I began feeling that may be this is the right way to go about this film.
Before PadMan, there was a film on menstruation called Phullu which didn’t do well? It got an ‘A’ certificate. Have you seen it? Do you think there was no buzz about it since it was not driven by a star?
Twinkle: Yes I know. I haven’t seen it. For us, we were interested in making Murugananthan’s life because THAT was an inspiring story. I repeat...it was not just about menstruation but a man who fights against odds, a man who is not constrained by the limits of his education, his language or his financial status and who breaks all those conventions. If it was just a story of menstruation I would not have been able to make such a wonderful film. It was also about his personality. If he was a very sombre person, the movie would not have that flavour... that we have brought into this film with a mainstream treatment.
What kind of stories will you be looking out for in the future as a producer?
Twinkle: I am not sure if I’ll produce more films (laughs). When I wrote my last book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, people said it was a book of feminist stories. I didn’t set out to write a book on feminism. I wrote about characters and the things that mattered to me. The things that we believe in...our fundamentals seep into our work. So I think that’s how it got the flavour of women trying to find their own place in life because that’s what I firmly believe in. For that matter, I didn’t realise that in every story there is a tree or that there was a strong bond between sisters - it was repeated in three stories. I didn’t realise it while writing it. It was only after the book was over that I could see this pattern emerging. That point I was working with my group called Rastachaap where we were doing a lot of work like painting trees, working with the BMC and then suddenly, in Salaam Noni Apa there was a guy who was a retired BMC officer and I was suddenly talking about Gulmohar trees. And I realised that it’s just completely coming from the way I am experiencing life and I am filtering that into my writing. I don’t think I have a genre of movies I want to make. But something where the universe collides with my sensibilities will translate into my storytelling - book or celluloid depiction.
You have dabbled in many things - actor, interior designer, author, producer. Do you feel this constant need to keep reinventing yourself? Does that drive you?
Twinkle: (Laughs) I am toaster. I keep getting better with every edition. I am the next generation iPad. I do have a penchant for leaping into new things. I have been working since I was 17-years-old. The only time I didn’t really work was when I had my second child - my daughter because I was advised bed rest. I opened my store when I was three and a half months pregnant. It’s unfathomable for me to not have my brain immersed in productivity.
“Failing as an actor was very liberating. After that it took away that fear. I discovered what my strengths were. My strengths have been the same since I was 12 years ago. Books have been my world. I was somebody who was outspoken. At that time it was seen as a drawback.”
I liked to make really lame jokes. My attributes at that age - I played up to my strengths when I was 40. The fear of taking leaps is now redundant.
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