Movies to clean up society

Bollywood has often touched upon subjects like sex, HIV, sexual violence and other sensitive topics. Now filmmakers are focusing on a taboo topic that has only recently become a part of open discourse addressing issues like sanitation, hygiene and menstrual hygiene.

Films like Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Padman and Phullu are dabbling with some sensitive issues to spread the awareness. While Padman is based on a person who takes up the challenge to make affordable cotton sanitary pads for women, Phullu is about spreading awareness about sanitary napkins in the rural areas.

Abhishek Saxena, director of Phullu, believes that stories on sanitation need to be brought into the limelight. He says, “As filmmakers, our job is also to educate people, so we took the initiative to make a film on this. Even today in rural areas, people still don’t know what a sanitary napkin is, so forget talking about cheapest sanitary napkins. Unless, they don’t know there is any such product, they will not know whether it’s costly or cheap. Our film is about that, for people who are not aware of it.”

Poster of Phullu

Twinkle Khanna, the producer of Padman, hopes to break the stigma attached to menstruation. In a previous interview, she stated, “Padman is a wonderful project. It will bring awareness about something which has so far been cloaked and shamed and I am very happy to be a part of it.”

Apart from the awareness about sanitary hygiene, lack of toilets in the rural area is also an important issue. Toilet — Ek Prem Katha, which stars Akshay Kumar, is based on the subject of sanitation and the need to have a toilet in every household in order to reduce health issues among women and children.

Poster of the film Padman

Prerna Arora, the producer of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, says, “These films are all about educating the mass and bringing out the hidden truth about people who are unaware and get influenced by these kinds of topics. Sitting here in Mumbai, we don’t face such issues but even today in many rural areas, there are so many houses that don’t have toilets and it’s an important subject.”

The makers of Phullu are also planning to showcase the film in rural areas for free of cost. Abhishek understands that a film like this won’t rake in moolah since they don’t have a star associated with the project. He says, “The day our film will release we will show this film in the rural areas and educate them about it through this film. Our motive is not to make money. We can’t make too much money from this film because we don’t have a star. We will also distribute pads in many rural areas.”