The upcoming Hindi film 'Pad Man', directed by R Balki and starring Akshay Kumar, Radhika Apte and Sonam Kapoor in lead roles, is one of the most anticipated movies right now. Those who have seen the trailer are raving about both Akshay and the real-life hero on whose life the film is based.

The latter is none other than Arunachalam Muruganantham, a Tamilian from Coimbatore, whose invention of an innovative napkin-making technology at a low cost, has been described as "revolutionary".

It's telling that none of the South Indian industries woke up to tell this inspiring story. It took the largely glamour-obsessed Bollywood do it.

At least Kollywood fares better in bringing to the audience great tributes to unsung heroes. Traffic Ramaswamy's life has inspired 'Joker' and 'Theeran Adhigaram Ondru' ('Khakee' in Telugu) is also based on real-life heroic cops. One cannot forget that the past year has been a great one for Tamil cinema as quality fare such as 'Oru Kidayin Karunai Manu', 'Kurangu Bommai', 'Aramm', 'Lens', 'Nishabdham', 'Theeran Adhigaram Ondru' and 'Aruvi' among others have graced the screen.

However, Tollywood has limited itself to telling larger-than-life stories even when they are based on real-life heroes (read 'Gautamiputra Satakarni' and 'Sye Raa').