Padman: Phullu director Abhishek Saxena accuses CBFC of being partial to Akshay Kumar's film

As Akshay Kumar’s Padman gears up for a 9 February release, Phullu director Abhishek Saxena has accused the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) of being prejudiced against their small-budget which was released in June last year.

Phullu is a story about an uneducated man of the same name who realises the inconveniences which women go through during menstruation. He then sets out to create awareness about the issue.

Padman, on the other hand, is inspired from the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, a social activist from Tamil Nadu, who dedicated his life to the cause of hygienic menstruation and cost-effective manufacturing of quality sanitary pads.

In the run up to the promotions for Padman, Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna — who is the producer of the movie — have endorsed Padman as the first movie to be made which deals with the issue of menstrual hygiene.

Twinkle Khanna even spoke at the Oxford Union in London and said that her primary motive behind making Padman is to “bring awareness to a subject that so far has been tucked away in shadows.”

Now, Phullu director Abhishek Saxena has alleged that the CBFC was prejudiced towards him and his small-budget movie that also aimed to raise awareness among people regarding menstruation.

Speaking to India Today , Saxena said, “The first film on periods and menstruation, hygiene was Phullu. Even before the announcement of Padman, my film was ready, I had the censor certificate as well, it was registered in 2015 itself.”

Saxena also said that that the CBFC has been extremely partial to Akshay Kumar and sidelined Phullu completely.

Saxena said , “I would like to share that the CBFC has given Padman a U/A Certificate, whereas the CBFC told me that menstruation as a subject in itself is ‘adult’ and they gave us an ‘A’ certificate. They are being partial. Because of the ‘A’ certificate we faced so many losses.”

The producer of Phullu, Anmol Kapoor, said , “I would like to bring your attention to the false claims made by the producers of Padman. On various news sites, including BBC news, they are claiming that Padman is the world’s first film on menstrual hygiene. This is wrong and false information, that is getting shared worldwide. Phullu was the first film ever made on this topic and was released in June 2017.”

Padman, directed by R Balki, will release on 9 February. Phullu aired on television on 24 January.