Pad Man
Short description
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.
What's left behind the scenes
- The vending machine for feminine hygiene products shown in the film is an exact, working replica of the original machine invented by Arunachalam Muruganantham. He personally oversaw the creation of the replica.
- Akshay Kumar's speech at the UN was filmed in one take.
- In one episode, Akshay Kumar's character looks at childhood photos of the heroine, played by Sonam Kapoor. In one of the photos, Sunil Shetty's face is inserted in place of her real father, Anil Kapoor, who plays her father in the film.
- This is the second film in Hindi to receive permission to film inside the UN building in New York. The first such film was Mohit Suri’s melodrama “Half Girlfriend” (2017).
- The plot is based on the story “The Sanitary Workers of the Holy Land” from Twinkle Khanna’s collection “The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad,” inspired by the life and work of Indian inventor and social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham. He is known for inventing a manual device for producing inexpensive sanitary pads. He is also known for promoting hygiene in the poorest areas of India and other countries.
- Many celebrities from the film industry joined the film's promotional campaign, posting their photos with sanitary pads on social media.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
