Period. End of Sentence, a documentary film set in India on the taboos around menstruation and featuring the real ‘Pad Man’
Arunachalam Muruganantham
, bagged the
Oscar
in the Documentary Short Subject category. Directed by Iranian-American filmmaker
Rayka Zehtabchi, the film was co-produced by Indian producer Guneet Monga.
We contacted Arunachalam on the Oscar win and he said, “I never expected this. This documentary had won a lot of awards, but I was a bit sceptical about the Oscars, because the jury is usually male dominated. But someone told me that there was a woman on the jury, so I thought she might understand the significance of the subject and the documentary. The documentary is about a cause and it has been wonderfully shot, focusing only on the reality and that’s what makes it special. The award is not only for India, but for the entire world. We are going to subtitle the film and distribute it all over the world. PadMan was seen by 100 million women. It will take quite a long time to empower so many women, and the film reduced the duration by a few years. Similarly, this documentary will reduce the process by a few more years. The mission is to make India a 100% sanitary napkin-using country from the current 34%. It took us 18 years to move from 2% to 34%. One day, we will achieve the target of 100%, which will also provide employment for so many women, and this award will be beneficial for us in achieving the target.