'' PAD MAN" FILM ON THE SANITARY MAN OF INDIA

Padman revolves around the story of Arunachalam who invented low-cost sanitary pads.

"I didn't want to make a documentary, I wanted to make a commercial film so people can see it. It's a film you can take your children to, even though it talks about sanitary pads. It's a universal subject. Nobody has ever tried to touch this subject."

—Akshay Kumar


Pad Man is a 2018 Indian bollywood biographical comedy-drama film directed and written by R. Balki, featuring Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, and Radhika Apte in lead roles. It is based on the short story The Sanitary Man of Sacred Land in Twinkle Khanna's book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad, which is inspired by the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social activist from Tamil Nadu who introduced low-cost sanitary pads.The film was released theatrically on 9 February 2018.

Development

The film is based on "The Sanitary Man of Sacred Land", a short story from Twinkle Khanna's book, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad,Which is inspired from the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a Tamil Nadu-based social activist who revolutionized the concept of menstrual hygiene in rural India by creating a low-cost sanitary napkin machine.Pad Man was envisioned to be an awareness film without focusing on commercial aspects. The producers' main agenda was to reach out to a wide audience to create awareness and eradicate prevalent superstitions in India surrounding sanitary pads. As with Kumar's previous film, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, he hoped to educate the masses, both women and men, about menstrual hygiene and to stop labelling it as stigma or taboo in society. Furthermore, it was a plea towards politicians to drive their attention towards sanitary pads and making it mandatory across institutions.

The idea to adapt Murugan's life began in 2015 when Twinkle Khanna came across his story while doing a research for a column in The Times of India. Inspired and moved by his persistence and determination, she wrote about him in her book, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad (2016). Later, she planned to adapt his life to the big screen in order to reach out to more audiences, saying "our world is filled with viewers, not readers." Khanna, who also serves as a producer on the film, said she was drawn to the project due to its relevant yet underrated subject about menstruation and Muruganantham's determination.

R. Balki was Khanna's first choice to direct the film. She had previously seen Balki's work and appreciated his sensitivity in filmmaking.

In November 2017, Sony Pictures became the global distributor for the film.

Casting

Akshay Kumar plays Arunachalam Muruganantham, also known as "India's Menstrual Man". Kumar was not the first choice to play the role.Khanna thought of a few actors but she eventually handed it to Kumar after Murugan's insistence and because she thought it would be a game-changing event if Kumar, who the Indian public idolises and men look up to, wore sanitary pad.

Pre-production began in March 2017, and principal photography commenced on March 14. Filming moved to Delhi in April.Murugan worked closely with Kumar and Khanna on set in India, making sure every detail was accurate from the way he built his machine, to how to operate it, even his own posture.

Majority of the film was shot in a small town beside Narmada river named, Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh. After filming ended in India, the team travelled to New York City where pivotal scenes were filmmed in Brooklyn Bridge, Times Squareand Jazz at Lincoln Center as well as the United Nations headquarter. It is the second Bollywood film to be shot at the site following Half Girlfriend while Hollywood film The Interpreter was the first.

Release

The film was initially planned to be released on 13 April 2018, but was later moved to 26 January. However, on 19 January, it was announced that the film has been postponed to 9 February 2018 to avoid clash with Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat.Regarding the possible box office clash with Aiyaary which releases on the same day, Kumar denounced the tension saying that it was unlikely since both films have different subjects and themes.

Pad Man is scheduled to be released across 3350 screens worldwide; 2750 screens in India and 600 screens overseas.Being a social issue based film, the producer's are planning to show the film in various schools in smaller towns and cities with the aid of various ministries and the government.

Marketing

The first trailer was released on 15 December 2017. Soon after, the trailer began trending on Twitter with the hashtag #PadManTrailer. Scenes showing Kumar casually trying to wear a sanitary napkin and the other handing them to his sister became a trending topic. A second poster was released on 25 December which shows Kumar holding cotton in his hand with words like "Fighter, Genius, Innovation, Unreal Man, No Shame, Real Problem and Passion" written all around. The Times of India called it a "unique poster".

Controversy

It was banned in Pakistan due to its subject revolving around taboo. Central Board of Film Censors denied to give the No-Objection Certificate to the film and said, "we cannot allow a film whose name, subject and story are not acceptable yet in our society." They disallowed the Pakistani film distributors IMGC and HKC to purchase the film rights and stated that they were "ruining Islamic traditions, history and culture." Film posters were also removed from the local cinemas. Some Pakistani women have protested this decisions by sending pictures of them holding sanitary pads to the censor board.^[30]

Reception

Box office

Pad Man earned a modest ₹10.26 crore (US$1.6 million) on its opening day in India. Buoyed by good word of mouth, the film witnessed gradual momemtum on its second and third day earning ₹16.11 crore (US$2.5 million) and ₹16.11 crore(US$2.5 million) respectively. In total, it earned ₹40.05 crore (US$6.1 million) nett (US$7.9 million gross) over its opening weekend.^[31][32]

Outside India, the film debuted simultaneously with its domestic debut in 5 international markets which generated around an estimated US$1 million for a worldwide opening of US$8.9 million.

In the United States and Canada, Pad Man grossed US$760,000 at an average of US$5,000 per screen from 152 screens. Sony noted that the film debuted above the opening of Kumar's Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, which debuted with US$678,000 from 176 theaters (US$3,852 per theater average).

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 10 reviews, and an average rating of 6.8/10.^] Hindustan Times rated the film 3/5 stars, writing that, "PadMan begins on slow note and drags on for some time before picking up pace. The characters in the supporting cast seem to be in a race for overacting".

Soundtrack

Padman
Soundtrack album by Amit Trivedi
Released	26 December 2017[35]
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	21:03
Language	Hindi
Label	Zee Music Company
Amit Trivedi chronology
Secret Superstar (2017) Padman (2017) Raid (2018)
External audio

The music of the film has been composed by Amit Trivedi while the lyrics have been written by Kausar Munir. The first track of the film "Aaj Se Teri" which is sung by Arijit Singh was released on 20 December 2017. The second track of the film titled as "The Pad Man Song" which is sung by Mika Singh was released on 25 December 2017 on the occasion of Christmas. The music of the film was officially released by Zee Music Company on 26 December 2017.

All lyrics written by Kausar Munir; all music composed by Amit Trivedi.

Track listing
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Aaj Se Teri"	Arijit Singh	5:12
2.	"The Pad Man Song"	Mika Singh	3:23
3.	"Hu Ba Hu"	Amit Trivedi	3:36
4.	"Saale Sapne"	Mohit Chauhan	4:42
5.	"Sayaani"	Yashita Sharma, Jonita Gandhi, Yashika Sikka, Rani Kaur	4:10