'Pad Man' Is A Bollywood Movie About A Man And His Menstrual Pads

Today, everyone respects Arunachalam Muruganatham, 52, a social entrepreneur who lives in the city of Coimbatore in South India. But there was a time, he says, when his neighbors were convinced he had lost his mind. Some even believed that he was a vampire.

"It all started because I wanted to create a good sanitary napkin for my wife," he laughs.

That was back in 1998, when Muruganatham married Shanthi Natrajan. He saw that she would use torn rags to absorb the blood during the onset of her menstrual cycle. He was shocked to find out how common this practice was. Other women in the villages around Coimbatore would use whatever was at their disposal — wrapping small mounds of ash or sand in cloth to use as absorbents.

Later that year, he began to experiment. He was intent on creating a cheaper sanitary napkin. "In the '90s, the napkins were available in Indian stores and supermarkets, but because of high production costs, they were out of reach he says. And they weren't always available in rural areas.