If he was in Mumbai, grateful women in India would have forced Akshay Kumar to take a bow. But the Bollywood superstar is in London. Where he just wrapped the first schedule of his Diwali 2019 comedy film Housefull 4. However, the news reached him almost at once. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced at the GST Council meeting in New Delhi that “Sanitary napkins will be exempted from the 12% Goods & Services Tax,” and Akshay was already tweeting his grateful and tearful thanks to the government.
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Without a doubt, it was Akshay’s path-breaking January release PadMan that triggered the government’s response to the protests, petitions and court cases questioning why pads and tampons were “luxury” items under GST and men’s shaving creams and condoms were exempt. PadMan was the first Bollywood film that boldly tackled the taboo subject of menstrual hygiene and sanitation in India. Just as the actor’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha in August 2017 used open defecation to make a critically acclaimed commercial blockbuster.
The subjects of both films were sensitive yet unmentionable Indian social issues. Nobody else would have touched them because defecation and menstrual hygiene are not Bollywood’s ideas of entertaining cinema. So when he made then, Akshay already knew that Toilet and PadMan would not touch 300 crores and ring the box office tills for him. “But socially I hoped they will make a difference to the country and to people’s lives,” he had told PeepingMoon.com. “For me, these films aren’t about numbers, but about changing people’s mindsets.”
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Toilet gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan’ campaign a shot in the arm and even got Microsoft founder Bill Gates to appreciate Akshay’s effort at creating awareness about the hazards of open defecation in India. But it took five months after PadMan’s release for the government to accept that sanitary pads were essential items and not luxury and had therefore to be tax-free. In the interim period, the actor drove a social revolution urging India to recognise that periods and menstrual hygiene were an important issue, not taboo.
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In interviews after PadMan’s success, Akshay who had been all for zero GST on pads, posed on social media holding a sanitary pad and said, “Yes, that’s a pad in my hand. There’s nothing to be ashamed about. It’s natural, Period. The biggest achievement of PadMan is that men and women are breaking the taboo and discussing menstrual hygiene.” Yesterday, he admitted he had tears of joy because a cause close to his heart had been fulfilled with the GST Council understanding the need for menstrual hygiene and exempting pads from the tax.
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Twenty-four hours later, Akshay’s fans are still bombarding social media with thanks and praise for the PadMan team and government. The Twitterati firmly believe that the film brought about this change of heart in the government. One summed up Akshay’s relentless campaign to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene by saying, “PadMan has finally paid off!” What’s next for the actor whose got a sports biopic in Gold releasing on August 15? Bollywood sequels to Toilet andPadMan, hopefully!
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