Akshay Kumar met Arunachalam Muruganantham, a rural welder from India who is the inspiration behind his new movie 'Pad Man'.

Pad Man is based on inventor Arunachalam Muruganantham who helped to provide women with access to high-quality and affordable sanitary pads 20 years ago.
 
The real life Pad Man Arunachalam, one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most Influential Persons is played by Akshay Kumar. 

The two met at the Mood Indigo event,  the biggest youth festival in Asia, at IIT Bombay to interact with students and share the story and inspiration behind PAD MAN. 

Arunachalam, writer and director of R Balki and lead star Akshay Kumar delivered inspired speeches to the audience. 

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Addressing students at the event R Balki said, “This is the first time I am doing a film based on a person’s life and for me that was a challenge - you actually have to do justice to that person’s life. For someone who’s led an incredible life, your film can’t let them down. 

"I did it because this is a not a film you can make again; there is no man like Arunachalum, and this a subject that hasn’t been seen in cinema anywhere in the world before.” 

Asian Image:
Akshay said, “Today you are seeing two heroes – the reel hero and the real hero. 

"Arunachalam is the real hero who did something extraordinary that is so important for our country. 

"As you may know 82% of women in our country do not have access to sanitary pads. 

"Some don’t have the money to afford them and end up using things such as leaves, rag cloths or even ash in place of sanitary products. Some women don’t even have awareness of sanitary products. 
 
"All of the students gathered today are very intelligent and we need to work together to remove these problems from the root of India.”
 
"I’m also humbled to see that through the film and mediums like social media, a conversation has started and boys and men have begun to speak about sanitary products. 

"It’s high time we start talking about these issues as if we want to make a country strong, we need to make our mothers strong, our sisters strong and our wives strong.”  
 
Arunachalam Muruganantham added, “Everything starts from the younger generation. 

"Everyone talks about personal achievement but what I believe is when you work for the society, the personal achievement comes as a by-product. Think about social achievement and personal achievement will come to you inevitably.”
 
Their event comes following the rapturous reception of the film’s trailer, which has become the highest viewed Bollywood trailer on Facebook after receiving over 19 million views in addition to over 28 million views on YouTube. 
 
Pad Man is out on January 26.