When actress cum writer Twinkle Khanna pronounced her maiden
venture as a producer, it astonished many as she has picked up an unusual story
for her project - the one revolving around Arunachalam
Muruganantham.
Muruganantham came into the limelight in the year 1998 when
he invented low-cost sanitary napkin machines to help the poorer women.
Since then, his mini-machines have been installed in 23 states across the
nation. He has been awarded Padma Shri by the India Govt and also features on
the TIME magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in the World.
(2014).
Twinkle pronounced the movie titled Pad Man, which
will be directed by R. Balki and her husband Akshay Kumar will play the lead
role of Muruganantham. But, her journey to procure the rights wasn't an
easy one. In a communication with a famous tabloid, A.Muruganantham spilled the
beans on how he was persuaded into allowing Akshay-Twinkle to tell his story
onscreen.
"This is not one of those movies that happened in a day
or week. It has taken 1.5 years for us to give it a shape. A girl called
Twinkle (Khanna) had been chasing me endlessly for rights. She tracked my every
move. She desperately tried to reach me when I was in Malaysia and New York.
She finally caught me in London. My friends were curious why would Twinkle want
to meet me. It was only then I learnt she is Rajesh Khanna's
daughter. I remember telling her, 'Akshay Kumar has also been trying to get me
for the rights.' She'd laughed and said, 'Yes, he is my husband.'"
Twinkle came to Muruganantham's house and attended
a workshop in Coimbatore with director R Balki. Akshay came much later to his place.
"He is extremely humble and down to earth. The day I met him I was going
for a lecture to a woman's college. He was hell-bent on coming with me because
he wanted to see me give a speech. Twinkle had to stop him because the project
was in the early stages then and they didn't want the media to get a whiff of
it, " he shared.
Peculiarly, but Muruganantham wanted a Hollywood movie
to be made on his life. "I rarely watch Hindi films, but after meeting
Akshay I watched Airlift and Baby. I didn't want to give the
rights to anyone in India. But, I didn't have the heart to turn down Akshay and
Twinkle. They were so passionate about the story that I had to give it to
them," he told.
"I am proud that for the first time in the history of
world cinema a mainstream male superstar will talk about menstruation sanitary
napkins in a full feature length Hindi film," shared Muruganantham,
before signing off.
Pad Man is scheduled for a 2017 release.
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