Exclusive: Top Chinese actors grace PadMan poster for Dec. 14 release

By Team Peeping Moon

on December 10, 2018

That China is eagerly awaiting the release of Akshay Kumar’s PadMan on Friday, December 14, we already told you. Now we are sharing with you a poster for the R. Balki-directed social drama on menstrual hygiene that is exciting audiences in China no end. The reason being the local distributor has roped in a leading Chinese actor couple to give the film a thumbs-up by featuring on the PadMan poster with its Bollywood star cast Akshay, Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte.

[caption id="attachment_179201" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] PadMan Chinese Poster[/caption]

PeepingMoon.com has exclusively learned from Beijing that popular Chinese TV and film actors Zanzilia Zhao Liying and William Feng Shaofeng proudly feature in the PadMan poster. Their presence is to inform curious local audiences that the extraordinary love story from Bollywood of an enterprising villager who sets out to make affordable sanitary napkins for the love of his wife, is a family film.

[caption id="attachment_179200" align="aligncenter" width="355"] PadMan Chinese Poster featuring Zanzilia Zhao Liying and William Feng Shaofeng.[/caption]

Zhao (31) and Feng (40), who reportedly met while shooting the Chinese fantasy film The Monkey King 3, got married on October 16. The celebrity couple had been dating for a year. The official announcement of their marriage on the popular Chinese social media site Sina Weibo led to a breakdown of the site with millions of likes and comments flooding it immediately.

[caption id="attachment_179202" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] PadMan Chinese Poster[/caption]

Meanwhile, the growing buzz from Beijing is that Akshay’s growing female fan following in China is looking forward to PadMan because of its woman-centric theme. The Bollywood superstar is a respected figure there after he made an impressive debut in the Chinese market with his satirical comedy-drama Toilet: Ek Prem Katha earlier in June.

[caption id="attachment_179203" align="aligncenter" width="800"] PadMan Chinese Poster[/caption]

The film on sanitary hygiene, titled Toilet Hero for Chinese audiences, struck a chord in people and was embraced warmly by women in particular. It had an opening weekend of Rs. 61.04 crore, more than Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Rs. 55 crore), and Aamir Khan’s PK and Dhoom 3 (Rs. 36.25 crore and Rs. 8.11 crore respectively). Akshay had tweeted, “Thank you audiences in China for your appreciation for Toilet Hero. Delighted to receive so much love.”

[caption id="attachment_179204" align="aligncenter" width="800"] PadMan Chinese Poster[/caption]

Incidentally, the R. Balki-directed PadMan will be the ninth Indian film releasing in China in 2018. After this, the next big Akshay film to hit Chinese markets will be Shankar’s sci-fi fantasy 2.0 in which he plays the villain opposite Rajnikanth’s double role in the lead. The film has proved to be a massive hit at the box office and its maker, Lyca Productions Private Limited, has tied up with leading Chinese production and distribution company HY Media to release 2.0 in that country in May 2019. The dubbed and subtitled versions of the film will be released across 56,000 screens in China. Of these, 47,000 will showcase the 3D version of 2.0 making it the biggest 3D release for any foreign film in that country.