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Another biopic for Akshay Kumar

In wife Twinkle Khanna’s first production, he will essay the character of Muruganantham, the man who created a machine that makes low-cost sanitary pads for women in rural areas

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Akshay Kumar and (inset) Twinkle Khanna
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In his three-decade long career, Akshay Kumar has stayed away from biopics. While his movies like Special 26, Airlift and Rustom were based on real life incidents, the characters Akshay played were fictitious or based on the people in the true incidents. However, the actor now has now signed two biopics. While the first biopic will see him playing Balbir Singh, a former member of the Indian hockey team, the second one produced by wife Twinkle Khan’s new production house will see him playing Arunachalam Muruganantha, the man who made a huge difference to the lives of rural women in contemporary India.

Those who have read Twinkle Khanna’s new book The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad will vouch that The Sanitary Man from the Sacred Land definitely makes for an inspiring story. The actress-turned-author has fictionalised the story, which is based on a true incident for her book. The inspiration behind the story is Arunachalam, who bore the wrath of his village and community for his commitment to find a way to make cheaper sanitary napkins that could be afforded by women in his village. Rural women until recently would use rags and other unhygienic means and methods. Now, the story will be her first filmi venture. Twinkle stumbled on the story of Muruganantham while doing some research on menstruation for one of her columns. It’s only fitting that the story of this extraordinary man makes its way from the pages of Twinkle’s book to the large screen.

Though the story in the book is penned by Twinkle, she isn’t taking the writing credits where the film is concerned. Says a source, “It’s the kind of film that will appeal to Twinkle’s sensibilities. It will be directed by R Balki and will star Akshay. The concept is hers, and will be developed by R Balki.” When we had earlier asked her whether she will graduate to writing for films after having written columns and authored two books, she had said, “I was writing columns, now I’ve written two books. I don’t know what I will write next. I have another job as well. I have an interior store and a candle factory. And between these three, I have enough on my plate. In fact, my plate is overflowing now.”

More about The Sanitary Man

Arunachalam Muruganantham saw that his wife Shanthi used filthy rags during her menstrual cycle, as sanitary napkins made by multinational corporations were expensive. Troubled by this, he started designing experimental pads. He tried to get his wife and sisters to use them, but they decided to stop co-operating with him after a certain amount of time, Since most women were shy to talk about this matter, he decided to test them himself. He used a bladder with animal blood and would pump it at regular intervals to see if his pads worked. But he was ridiculed and ostracised by his community and family. But he didn’t give up. Eventually, he devised a low-cost machine that could be operated with minimal training. Today, despite many offers from multinationals, Muruganantham has not sold out his machine.

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