Mumbai, Jun 7 (IANS): The story of "Phullu" which revolves around making affordable sanitary napkin for financially poor women, has a similarity with Akshay Kumar's next film "Padman". But director Abhishek Saxena says his film is different, barring the sanitary pads element.

Asked about the similarity in the theme, Saxena told IANS here: "As far as I know, the story of 'Padman' is about how successfully a man made cheap sanitary napkins that benefited many women. On the other hand, our story aims to create awareness about hygiene and use of sanitary napkins in the rural area, where people do not know the existence of pads... So, 'Phullu' is different from 'Padman'."

The film "Padman" is based on a story titled "The Sanitary Man from The Secret Land". It's the real life success story of Arunachalam Muruganantham, who innovated India's first cheapest sanitary napkin machine. The story was penned by Twinkle Khanna, who is now producing "Padman".

"The thought behind making the film 'Padman' is to share the inspirational and successful story of Muruganantham, and I think this is the time we have to get rid of the social taboo regarding menstruation."

According to Saxena, his "Phullu" is a fictional story based on fictional characters, though it has come from real life situations.

"We aim to create awareness about the use of the sanitary napkins, we even have conversations with doctors who are explaining the hygienic importance of choosing sanitary napkin over cloth. So, keeping the element of sanitary napkin aside, the intention of these two stories are different."

The film "Phullu" is releasing on June 16.