Want message to reach world: Tamil Nadu's Padman on Oscar win

The documentary was released in the same year that the Bollywood film Padman starring Akshay Kumar was released.

“Padman was seen by 100 million women. It would have taken us over two decades to reach out to a similar number of women. I hope the documentary would similar take the message on menstrual hygiene to people across the world,” said the Padma Sri winner.

While the film version of his story was more mainstream, he felt there were certain issues that cannot be revealed in a commercial film, which should be discussed in a documentary. Hence, I insisted on making the documentary to Guneet Monga, a Delhi-based film producer, during a meeting. I should also credit the director of the film, Rayka Zehtabchi, for making it a success,” he added.

The documentary is based in Hapur, a small village in Uttar Pradesh, which transformed after Muruganantham and his team set up a low-cost napkin vending machine there. In the documentary, women from the village share their struggles during menstruation and their transformation after setting up napkin machines.

“Two decades ago, only around five per cent of the women had awareness on menstrual hygiene. After I took up the issue to create awareness, and also due to wide reach of the film, Padman, 35 per cent of women have started using napkins. I desire it goes up further and one day India becomes a cent per cent sanitary napkin using country,” he said.

It was Muruganantham’s empathyfor his wife, Shanthi, whom he found using filthy rags during her menstrual cycle, that prompted him to work on low-cost pads that revolutionised the concept of hygiene among the rural women in India.