PadMan vs Phullu: R Balki claims ignorance on Abhishek Saxena-directorial

Akshay Kumar, Radhika Apte and Sonam Kapoor-starrer ‘PadMan’ deals with the subject of menstrual hygiene. As the makers say, it is probably the first time that the film is being made on this subject. But if recalled, there was a film named ‘Phullu’ starring Sharib Hashmi based on the same subject. The makers of this film challenged that ‘PadMan’ makers are making a false claim by saying that it is the first film talking about the issue.

But when we asked R Balki whether he was aware of any film named ‘Phullu’, he said, “No, there was no ‘Phullu’ before. There were two documentaries done by BBC and Al Jazeera. These were the only two documented stuff. In fact we had asked Arunachalam Muruganantham whether he has given rights to anybody else and he said no, I have not given any right to anybody. When we began shoot, in fact during the first schedule of the film we heard something like ‘Phullu’. I have not watched the film and by the time I came back it was gone. But the problem is, they had claimed it was not based on the life of Arunchalam. It would have been illegal if they had done that as Arunachal had not given rights to anybody. That’s why nobody spoke about it. I don’t know what the film is about, I heard it’s on pads. We asked Arunachalam then and he said it is illegal. We left it at that moment and moved on.”

‘PadMan’ is slated to release on February 9, 2018.

Nikita Thakkar

A strongly opinionated, free-spirited, budding Bollywood journalist, she likes to write anything in her own quirky style. When not running around to get assigned tasks completed, you will find her either painting, indulging in photography or dreaming in the la la land.