Arunachalam Muruganantham

“I had been getting queries from regional filmmakers to do a movie based on my work. But I did not want my work and mission - to create awareness on menstrual hygiene - to be restricted to only a part of the country. In fact, I wanted to do the movie in Hollywood.”

“My wife gone, my mum gone, ostracised by my village. I was left all alone in life.”

“When I tell a foreign audience that 90 per cent of Indian women have no access to sanitary napkin, there is a visible disbelief. But there is hardly a ripple when I say the same thing to an Indian crowd.”

“There were offers from a few Bollywood filmmakers, but I was sceptical as to whether those films will do justice to my vision or even my life. I was also apprehensive because what if I sign an agreement and give the rights to some filmmaker, and he shelves the project?”

“The idea came from my wife, since in our village, women cannot afford to buy sanitary pads. When I asked my wife, she told me we would have to cut down half of our milk budget to buy sanitary pads. Moreover, while raw materials for sanitary pads cost 10 paise, the end product was sold for 40 times that price. So, I decided to create it on my own.”

“When I speak a serious subject in an informal and humorous way, it has bigger impact. So much so, when BBC made a small documentary, they first thought of having a voiceover for me. The producer liked my English so much, he said they were retaining my original voice.”

“Luckily, I'm not educated. If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop.”

“The taboo regarding menstruation exists across the world, even among the educated.”

“When I work in the remotest villages, it reminds me of who I am... India is not built on 14 metros and 100 cities. It's made up of 600,000 villages.”

“'Padman' was about my early life and struggles, including my wife calling me a psycho and leaving me.”

“Imagine: I got patent rights to the only machine in the world to make low-cost sanitary napkins - a hot-cake product. Anyone with an MBA would immediately accumulate the maximum money. But I did not want to. Why? Because from childhood, I know no human being died because of poverty - everything happens because of ignorance.”

“What kept me going was my desire to provide a hygiene product for my wife.”

“The choice is yours: Do you want to exist, or do you want to live?”

“Every father, brother, and husband should know about menstruation. It is not just about women; it is about men, too.”

“The government should include menstrual hygiene in the curriculum.”

“Even if I can take sanitary napkins to 10% of the poor women in India, it will be big achievement.”

“My argument is that there is already an automated machine to make pads. What I did - I reverse-engineered it to 'simple.' Anyone who wants to compete will have to come out with a simpler machine.”

“It took me eight years of trial and error to design the machines that would make low-cost pads: just Rs 2 each, compared to those made by the MNCs that are priced anywhere above Rs 6 to Rs 100.”

“My plea is that don't wait for a girl to become a woman to empower them. Empower a girl's life by giving sanitary pads to them. With pads, we give them wings.”

“I have not hung a single award on my walls, including the Padma Shri.”