PadMan co-producer Twinkle Khanna reveals R Balki convinced her to cast Akshay Kumar

Twinkle Khanna’s first film under her banner of Mrs Funnybones Films,  PadMan, is a biopic on entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham, who invented a low-cost sanitary pad making machine.

And now Twinkle has revealed an interesting behind-the-scenes secret about the movie during the song launch event of ‘Aaj Se Teri’ from the movie. She admitted her actor-husband Akshay Kumar was not the first choice to play the titular ‘superhero’ in this film, as reported by   Deccan Chronicle .  

Helmed by R Balki, Padman follows the story of Muruganantham, a social activist from Tamil Nadu, who once revolutionised the menstrual hygiene issue in rural India by introducing a low-cost sanitary napkin machine.   When questioned if Akshay was the first choice for the lead role, Twinkle claimed, “No. R Balki convinced me that Akshay should do this part."  

When pressed further as to who she believed could have portrayed the role when the project was initially discussed, Twinkle laughed and said, “Are you trying to create trouble in my marriage now?” And Akshay could not resist himself to taunt her wife, "You already said that now (I was not your first choice for the film). There is already a problem."   Twinkle admitted initially, she had few other names in her mind but later realised Akshay would be perfect man for the role.  “The thing is, if we had somebody who the Indian public idolises and men look up to and he who could wear a sanitary pad, I think (it is) Akshay. I think what Balki has made Akshay do, and of course Akshay is very talented, I don’t think anyone could have played it better than him,"  she said, as reported by The Indian Express. Twinkle also revealed she chose to work with Balki as his knack of giving prominence to female voices in his movies excites her quite a lot. “Once I came across the story of Muruganantham, I felt it has to reach across states, borders, religions and there are only two things that work in this country - cricket and cinema.  Our cricketers have their own pads and they are busy with that. So we needed cinema to tell this story, I just had his (Balki) name on my mind. I have seen his films and have liked it. He is a sensitive filmmaker, he understands women partly because of his wife Gauri Shinde. She is a good influence on him," Twinkle justified.   The film, which also has Radhika Apte and Sonam Kapoor in pivotal roles, is scheduled to hit the screens on 25 January next year.

(Also read — Akshay Kumar on PadMan: Our aim is to raise awareness from the film, not earn money)