Dev Anand says there’re more serious issues than smoking 07th July 2005
17.45 IST
By Agencies
Bollywood veteran Dev Anand on Wednesday criticised the ban on smoking in films, saying there are several other serious problems facing the country which needed to be addressed.
The star, whose cigarette puffing in the song Har fiqr ko dhunye mein udaata chala gaya in the 1950 blockbuster 'Hum Dono' is still considered a style statement, said in an informal chat with reporters in Allahabad, "Tobacco may be a bad habit, but the country has several other serious problems to grapple with".
The octogenarian actor said the decision has come from a "whimsical" political leadership. The forever-young Dev saab was speaking at the launch of fortnightly film magazine 'Film Screen International', said.
"There is poverty, lack of education for all, unemployment, social tensions. These are the issues our political leadership ought to address," the 84-year old actor, whose upcoming venture ‘Mr Prime Minister’ revolves round the theme of country's progress in the last six decades, said.
"I have lived for so many years, seen so much in life that I now feel 'competent' enough to comment on a whole epoch that has shaped the destinies of people of my generation and would influence the lives of the generations to come," Anand said.
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Dev Anand says there’re more serious issues than smoking
