Phullu Producer: “False Claims Are Being Made By Padman Makers”

Akshay Kumar’s Padman which earlier was supposed to be released tomorrow but because of Padmaavat, it got delayed. Now, in the new turn of events, director & producer of Phullu – a film made on a similar subject as Padman have some serious allegations to put.

Made on a controlled budget, the makers of Padman are coming with some extremely creative ideas for its promotions. Recently Twinkle Khanna was invited to the Oxford Union to talk about the film.

During all the promotional events, the Padman team has been claiming how this is a first movie to be made on menstrual hygiene. Whereas, last year a small movie named Phullu which had a similar subject. Director of Phullu, Abhishek Saxena, has opened up to reveal how not Padman but Phullu is the first film tackling a subject as menstrual hygiene.

In an exclusive interview with Deccan Chronical, Abhishek said, “The first film on periods and mensuration hygiene was Phullu. Even before the announcement of PadMan my film was already ready I had the Censor Certificate as well, it was registered in 2015 itself.”

He also alleges that CBFC, in past, has being very partial towards his film Phullu and is now lenient with Akshay Kumar and Padman.

Abhishek further said, “I would also like to share that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has given PadMan a U/A Certificate whereas to my film there wasn’t a single portion that was adult but the CBFC told me that this Menstruation subject in itself is an Adult subject and they gave us an A certificate. They are being partial, because of the A certificate we faced so many losses.”

“My question is Why so much of partiality with us? Even we wanted to educate the masses, show to the film to school children but then we couldn’t because everyone told us that your film has an A certificate so you can’t show it. But, today Akshay Kumar is going everywhere with the film, he is going in the villages and talking openly about his film, no one said anything to him.”

Deccan Chronical also contacted the producer of the film Dr. Anmol Kapoor, who said: “I would like to bring your attention to the false claims made by producers of Padman movie. On various news sites, including BBC news, they are claiming that the Padman movie is the world’s first movie on menstrual hygiene. This is wrong and false information that is getting shared worldwide as our movie Phullu was the first movie ever made on this topic and was released in June 2017.

I can understand that our movie was a small budget and Padman is a bigger budget movie, but it should not given right of making false claims at the expense of various artists who worked in the movie Phullu. We support Padman as it also tackles issue of menstrual hygiene and we hope that they can educate masses and help save lives.”

He is annoyed with the fact of how team Padman is discrediting team Phullu at various platforms, he adds “They shouldn’t be allowed to make false claims for cheap publicity and discredit years of hard work done by makers of Hindi movie Phullu. I would really appreciate if media could make their followers aware of false claims made by the producers of Padman movie and help us fight rights of independent producers. We should be treating everyone equally.

We are also disheartened by Indian Film Certification Board actions. They seems to have two different sets of rules, one for rich and powerful people and one for ordinary filmmakers like us. Our movie was given “A” adult only certification vs U/A for movie Padman. I would really appreciate if CBFC could explain why they have two different set of rules for both movies?”

He also demands an official statement about the same, “Both movies tackle same topic and have a similar storyline. Is it because someone had put pressure on CBFC to halt releasing of our movie Phullu in 2017? I do believe that Indians and Bollywood movie fans all over the world deserve an official statement from CBFC and officials should clarify why double standards for Padman vs Phullu movie?”