Menstrual Hygiene Day: PadMan Stars Radhika Apte-Akshay Kumar Wish The Girls With an Important Message

Gripping the Internet in a storm with its discourse on the taboo of menstrual hygiene, R Balki directorial PadMan, starring actors Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte and Akshay Kumar was not only received well on the home turf but also internationally. Inspired by the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social entrepreneur from Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, who introduced low-cost sanitary pads, the movie was created to reach a broad audience and bring about awareness and eradicate prevalent superstitions in India surrounding sanitary pads and on Menstrual Hygiene Day on Tuesday, May 28, Radhika and Akshay continued to raise awareness about the issue.

Taking to their Instagram handle, Radhika shared a still from the movie, where she can be seen carrying a basket of sanitary pads amidst heaps of frangipani flowers. The post was captioned, “Happy menstrual hygiene day!! #28thmay #menstrualhygieneday” (sic). Akshay too shared a poster of the movie, where he, along with the other co-actors can be seen holding a packet of sanitary pads with sweets laid out before them on a table and a cane bag filled with similar packets beside it. Akshay’s caption read, “‪Happy #MenstrualHygieneDay to all the Girls, Mothers and Sisters. Lets all help every girl child feel Hygienic, Safe & Confident every day of the month #Period” (sic).

PadMan, which was released on February 9, 2018 and was directed and written by R Balki, came about after actor-author Twinkle Khanna, Akshay’s wife, decided to take her story on Muruganantham’s persistence and determination to the big screen. Twinkle, 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.