Radhika Apte on Pad Man Challenge controversy: Actors are not social workers

The Pad Man Challenge, which encourages people to post pictures of themselves holding a sanitary pad on social media, has come under fire from various quarters. The criticism is that the campaign, which saw the participation of big names from Bollywood including Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, Arjun Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and others, is gimmicky and not leading to any real change.

Radhika Apte, who plays Akshay Kumar’s wife in Pad Man, defended the initiative and said that actors should not be expected to behave like “social activists”. The actress told Mumbai Mirror, “Actors are not social activists; they have a job called acting. The whole purpose behind this film initially was the fact that the actual story of Arunachalam Muruganathan is absolutely inspiring. This inspiring story is about sanitary napkins. In our country and around the world, menstruation is considered a taboo and we should do something about it.”

Radhika had a message for those who have been criticising the Pad Man Challenge. “Trying to find fault in that and asking us (actors) to become social workers, I think they really need to focus on their work and should not waste time talking about things. Everyone is doing what they can do and they have a profession as well,” she said.

Pad Man hit the theatres on February 9, and collected Rs 10.26 crore on its opening day.