‘Padman’ banned in Pakistan as censor board hesitant to watch it

Akshay Kumar's latest release ‘Padman’, which is based on menstrual health awareness, apparently never got a chance for approval as some members of Pakistan Censor Board were too hesitant to watch the movie about women’s health.

‘Padman’ is based on the life of a man who created sanitary pads for improving women’s menstrual health in India. The movie also stars Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte. However, when the Twinkle Khanna-produced movie was sent to Pakistan Censor Board for clearance, it was instantly rejected only after watching the trailer of the film.

Members of Punjab Film Censor Board denied giving the movie a clearance certificate as it is based on one of society’s considered taboos. This aggravated the film distributors who called the members hypocrite for not banning the other movies which are 'ruining Islamic traditions, history and culture.'

Pakistan is not the only country ‘Padman’ is facing a ban, as the movie has been denied release in 49 other countries.

Another industry source said, "The movie was initially bought by Amjad Rashid of IMGC but after he was shown the trailer, he was advised not to import the film. Later HKC bought it and applied for non-objection certificate [NOC] which was denied," Pink Villa reported.

A senior lady executive from Pakistan, when asked about her personal opinion on denial of NOC, said, "Well, you know how the mentality is in our Asian men towards periods and they don’t want to discuss this as it’s a taboo sadly."

The movie has already released in countries including India, Russia, China and Iraq.