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Bollywood fumes at smoking ban on screen
02nd June 2005 09.30 IST
By ApunKaChoice Bureau

The Indian government’s decision to ban smoking on screen by Bollywood personalities has come in for sharp criticism from the film industry.

The government has justified its decision saying they glamorise the use of cigarettes but the move has angered filmmakers in Bollywood.

In tough new regulations, the health ministry said distributors and directors would have to show health warnings on screens in old movies and TV shows, whether Indian or foreign, that showed actors smoking.

"(There would have to be a) mandatory display of a prominent scroll containing a health warning in programmes containing scenes with smoking situations that have been produced before this notification," a ministry statement said on Wednesday.

The new rules also mean names or logos of tobacco products would have to be cut or masked.

Bollywood, which turns out three times more movies than Hollywood, often depicts its macho heroes with cigarettes or cheaper-priced hand rolled bidis dangling from their lips.

"It is an absurd regulation...to ban smoking on screen is ridiculous. It's a joke taken too far," filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was quoted in a newspaper as saying on Monday.

Another director, Shyam Benegal , told the newspaper the move would interfere with artistic expression.

"The smoking act comes in handy when you want to develop a character. The ban does not make sense," Benegal said.

But the World Health Organisation, which estimates smoking is linked to more than 800,000 deaths in India a year, mainly among men aged between 25 to 69, lauded the move.

"Portrayal of attractive people smoking has an influence on young people as some of them identify with those on the screens," said Harsaran Pandey, WHO's spokeswoman for Southeast Asia.

In May 2004, India banned smoking in public places such as railway stations and parks as well as tobacco advertising and sponsorship by tobacco firms of sporting events.

Shares of India's diversified ITC Ltd, the country's biggest cigarette maker, were down 0.32 per cent on Wednesday morning on the benchmark Bombay exchange but analysts said the new rules would have little impact.

"No cigarette maker was using movies to promote his products... So this will have little impact on cigarette companies," an analyst with a leading brokerage said.

(The picture shows Amitabh Bachchan in a still from his latest release Bunty Aur Babli ).