Thank You, Akshay Kumar, For Being India’s Uncelebrated Ambassador For Women

Dear Akshay,

You might just smile and humbly pass this off as yet another gesture that’s become a part of your daily routine, but today, on International Women’s Day we need to Thank You. We need to thank you from the bottom of our heart for what you’ve done for the women in our society.

While most of your colleagues would have rejected the idea of becoming a part of Padman, the movie which talks about how countless Indian women don’t have access to sanitary napkins during menstruation. You graciously took it up like a pro! You not only brought the most imperative issue among majority rural Indian women, but you also decided to give a man his due recognition which he never expected.

With your movie Toilet Ek Prem Katha, you’ve touched the most sensitive and shameful truth of our society which is a pity that our people don’t have access to proper places of defecation. In a country where there are rich businessmen whose toilets must be bigger than an average India’s living room, your initiative to choose a script which takes up the issue of open defecation and a need to build toilets in the country is worth all the applause you’ve received.

You opened a Women’s Self Defense Center for women in Mumbai to teach them self-protection and propagated the same initiative across the country. Every city needs an Akshay Kumar, but it’s only possible for you to take up one, and you did! You’re exemplary in many ways.

The best part about you Akshay is the fact that you have a wife who gives you her rock solid support and yet has an identity of her own. People know her as Twinkle Khanna and not just a woman who is a star wife. Her endeavours and popularity among the masses and social media are also because you let her be. You don’t crib like any other person would do after reading her revolutionary blogs. In fact, you edit them!

This world needs more people like you, you respect women, empower them and take initiative, sometimes an initiative to just let them be.

In your own words from one of your movies, we'd like to say, "Hero kya hota hai? ... pyar ke liye ladne waala, dosti ke liye marne waala ... kismat se fakeer par himmat se bhara hua ... sharif aadmi"

Thank you, Akshay!

Thank You!