‘If not for Akshay, why would people watch Padman’

MUMBAI: Director R. Balki, who is all excited for his upcoming film Padman, says Akshay Kumar is the right man for the film, asking if not for Akshay, why else would people watch the film?

Balki was present at the song launch of the film along with actor Akshay, Kumar’s wife and the film’s producer Twinkle Khanna, and actor Radhika Apte, recently when he was asked about casting the Khiladi actor for a film like Padman, which is a biopic on Arunachalam Muruganantham, the inventor of a lowcost sanitary pad making machine in India.

“Akshay had asked me if I was sure he should play this part in the film. The first thing that came to my mind was why else would people watch the film. I think he is the right guy to play this role. And the only thing we knew at the time was Muruganantham’s life. I wasn’t even sure how to make it into a film at first,” he said. Balki, whose last directorial Ki & Ka was critically acclaimed, also spoke about how the biopic process went. “I had to write it first to figure out whether the script would be right for the film. After writing, once when we saw the complete script and how it was going to come up then I was clear that this film can be made.” Twinkle said she didn’t think there was anyone else apt to direct the film, which is based on ‘The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad’. Asked why Balki was chosen as the director, Twinkle said: “When I came across Muruganantham’s story, I wrote it down. When we decided to take it across the board, across states, we knew there are only two things that work in this country, cricket and cinema.”