Pad Man

Pad Man is a comedy-drama about Lakshmikant Chauhan, a man in rural India who comes to understand how menstruation affects the lives of women around him. He sets out to build a machine that can produce affordable sanitary pads, aiming to make them available to women in villages who would otherwise go without. His mission meets resistance from his community and creates tension at home, since his wife Gayatri and the wider society view his efforts as shameful. The film is based on the life of the social activist Arunachalam Muruganantham, whose work brought low-cost sanitary pads to poor rural areas.

R. Balki directed and wrote the screenplay, and the film was produced by Twinkle Khanna, Gauri Shinde and Vivek Krishnani. Akshay Kumar plays Lakshmikant, with Radhika Apte as Gayatri and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja as Pari Walia. It was Balki's first directorial credit in the chronological list of his films, ahead of Lust Stories 2 in 2023.

Made for about 10 million US dollars, Pad Man earned roughly 29 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.8 from around 32,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.5 from about 248 votes. The critics' rating stands at 6 out of 10 from 19 reviews, lower than the audience scores.