Business learnings from the Movie 'Padman'

Yesterday, I watched the Akshay Kumar movie 'Padman'. It narrates the story of the brave entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham (read more about the story here https://www.gqindia.com/content/pad-man-akshay-kumar-inspiration-arunachalam-muruganantham/). Some key takeaways

1. Sanitary Pads cost ~7-10 per piece vs the Rs 2 here. Still, due to brand and distribution, the branded players like Whisper still dominate. Why this low cost option is not a wide spread one in each village/town? Is it due to cost factor which lead Nano to fail?
2. Microfinance and women self help groups can afford the machine-good avenue for CSR
3. Often, the front face(women for such sensitive areas) and back end team should be different as happened in this case
4. Often, strangers help us as first customers/funders/adopters while our near/dear ones abandon us in time of distress. Akshay Kumar's character forgave all others but others may not
5. Break down a big problem(pad machine) into its 4 basic parts and it resolves itself
6. Award functions are a good way to get publicity for the winners and often justifies the potential waste on opex etc, its a pity its not used more often for such good causes
7.  One needs to test one's work(eg play on a swing) before completing it, that is pride in workmanship. Also, unless one walks in the shoes of the customer, things won't work
8. For personal use items, brands are useful to cut the awkwardness. That is why unrelated words like Whisper, Durex sell well(Kamasutra/Nirodh being an exception :D)
9. An inventors journey is often a lonely painful one, and very few inventions are successful to extent of commercialisation. Patents can therefore make a life and are the 'moon shot' reason for scientific tinkering(in the non creative space that is)