Akshay Kumar to play Tamil Nadu’s ‘Menstrual Man’ on silver screen

CHENNAI: The life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, popularly known as the ‘Menstrual Man’, a school drop-out, who turned social entrepreneur and invented low-cost sanitary napkins, will soon be portrayed on big screen with Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar playing the lead.

The untitled venture is to be directed by R Balki, and is adapted from a short story in Twinkle Khanna’s (Akshay’s wife) new book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad . The story is inspired by Murga, as he is popularly called, a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore, who is the inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad making machine. His mini-machines, which can make sanitary pads for less than a third of the cost of commercial pads, have been installed in 23 of the 29 states. He will soon be supplying these machines to 106 nations. 

Muruga had no idea who Twinkle Khanna was when the former actress-turned columnist was pursuing him for an interview. “I didn’t know who Twinkle was then. She was just some woman who was chasing me for an interview,” says the inventor who later went on to meet Akshay Kumar and director R Balki who visited his home in Coimbatore. “They all ate on banana leaves and only later I realised that the tall man was renowned filmmaker Balki.” 

There’s been a huge buzz around Twinkle’s maiden production that already boasts of a star-studded cast and crew. The film also has the talented Radhika Apte (seen in Kabali ), Sonam Kapoor and PC Sreeram as cinematographer. 

“She chased me for months. I used to get regular calls from this lady who wanted to write about me. She had been calling me for months to meet me. But I was extremely busy around that time and I just wouldn’t have time to meet anyone,” he says. 

Columnist and author Twinkle Khanna had got his number from someone through a TED Talks organisers. After several failed attempts, things clicked when she called him when he was in London. “I was to give a talk at the Parliament House in London. I then received a call from the same lady and I told her that I was in London and I cannot talk to her. She immediately said that she is in this part of the world too and she is driving down to meet me. Only when she came to meet me, people around me were surprised to see her,” says Murganantham, “They asked me what was Twinkle Khanna doing here?’ He didn’t know who she was. 

“They then told me that she is daughter of Rajesh Khanna and Dimple Kapadia. Firstly, I don’t know Hindi and secondly, I don’t watch much TV. There is no way that I would have known her,” says Muruganantham, who confesses that he hasn’t read the full book, The Leg end of Lakshmi Prasad, which features his story as well. “I have read it in bits and I liked whatever I read. I am comfortable narrating my journey to women because they can relate to the agony of menstruation. They understand the reason behind my determination. I was fine telling my story to Twinkle as she is one of the nicest people I have ever met, despite her celebrity status,” he says.

It is none other than Twinkle’s husband, Akhay Kumar, one of the India’s most successful actors, who is to play him on the big screen. “I had once watched Singh is King on a flight. I though the actor was very funny. I didn’t know what his name was. Even before the movie was being finalised, I had met Akshay on a couple of times. He is down-to-earth, humble and a simple man. It was only later I realised that he is such a big star. After meeting him, I had watch Airlift and I liked him. I knew he will do good job. I even asked Twinkle to play the role of my wife but she laughed it off saying that she is not a good actress.” 

Muruganantham, says that he has no idea how they will fictionalise his story for the screen. All he wants is that there is more awareness about menstruation among public. “When a mainstream actor, with such a massive fan-following talks about menstruation, there will be more awareness about this social taboo and people will discuss about it. It will only do good to the society.”