India's onscreen tobacco ban goes up in smoke

Panel to study ban on smoking in films, TV

July 6, 2005

NEW DELHI, JULY 5:  The wishes of film and TV industry have finally prevailed on the issue of smoking ban in films. After a day-long workshop with representatives of film, TV and social organisations, ministry of information & broadcasting has decided to form a steering committee comprising representatives from the community to address the issue.
 
"We were not happy with the manner in which, I&B ministry handled the entire issue. Now, they have heard and understood our side," a senior film director attending the workshop told FE.

Briefing media, minister of I&B, S Jaipal Reddy said, "The government accepts the suggestions from the film, TV and media community. We will set up a steering committee to take this issue forward through process of consultation."

He said that the film-industry felt the need for self-regulation and would form a body to monitor films before they are submitted to the Censor Board.

The steering committee is likely to be formed in three months time. As for the ban on smoking in films made after October 2, the minister said, "Apart from period films, films on historical personalities which smoke, live telecasts, we would extend the category of exemption on case-to-case basis, as recommended by the committee."

The film-stars would be required to appear in public-service ads on all societal concerns and there will be disclaimers before movies having smoking scenes.

On surrogate advertising by tobacco and liquor companies, the minister said that brand extensions will be discouraged. "Close-ups of cigarette brands and placement of such products in films and TV will be unacceptable," Mr Reddy said.

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Govt softens stand on smoking ban in films
 
Tuesday, 05 July , 2005, 20:20
 
New Delhi: Under pressure from the entertainment industry over the proposed ban on smoking scenes in films and TV serials from October 2, the government on Tuesday appeared to hint that it might be headed for dilution.

"The category of exceptions to the ban on smoking scenes could be expanded. It is a continuous process. Whatever comes in the way of aesthetic appeal may be given up," Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy told reporters after a workshop, which saw participation from filmmakers and TV producers, social activists, Health Ministry officials and medical experts.

The four-hour long workshop on certification issues, organised by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, ended with the government agreeing to more of "self-censorship by the industry" and "expansion of creative freedom."

On June 15, the government announced that smoking scenes in films and TV serials would be banned from October 2, though it said that exceptions would be made in case of situations such as treatment of historical personality, historical period and social messaging against smoking itself.
 
http://sify.com/news/othernews/fullstory.php?id=13889042
 
 

India's onscreen tobacco ban goes up in smoke

15 June 2005

NEW DELHI - India's tobacco ban in films and television serials has gone up in smoke with the ministry of information and broadcasting saying it is not feasible to implement, it was reported on Wednesday.

The ban was announced May 31, World No Tobacco Day, by Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, and was to come into effect August 1.

The information and broadcasting ministry, which regulates film and TV content, has told the health ministry that "the road to hell is often paved with good intentions", the Times of India newspaper reported.

According to the ban, films already shot have to edit smoking scenes and any references to cigarette brands. Old films, both foreign and Indian, shown on television will have a mandatory scroll about the hazards of smoking or will have the smoking scenes blurred.

The information ministry called the ban impractical, and said it would be technically very difficult to tamper with old films. It would also be impossible to remove smoking visuals during the live TV coverage of an event, officials said.

The ministry said it could not hamper creative freedom, but promised to ensure that smoking was not glamourised in future films, according to the report. Implementing the ban would have been a daunting task. India has the world's largest motion picture industry, producing about 1,000 films in more than eight languages a year. It also has 250 TV channels, and many are uplinked from abroad and therefore outside the jurisdiction of Indian laws.

An estimated 250 million Indians, one quarter of the country's population, use tobacco. The health ministry said about 900,000 people die of diseases related to tobacco use each year. 
 
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Bollywood reacts furiously over smoking ban in movies

June 08, 2005

Film producers in Mumbai have strongly protested the Centre's recent decision to ban smoking scenes in movies and on television.

In tough new regulations, the Union Health Ministry also said that 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.

Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA) members met here on Tuesday and said that the government should have first discussed the issue with representatives of the film industry before imposing any such ban.

"This is the film line, an entertainment business. We are not doing anything purposely. We are just playing a character, painting a character. Suppose tomorrow, I want to again make the movie "Devdas", he has to have the drinks. Tomorrow the minister will say you don't show him drinking, then how is it possible. At least, they should have a talk with the film industry," said Sushma Shiromani, the president of IMPPA.

K.D. Shorey, a member of the association, said that the industry works within the parameters of law and does not believe in glorifying acts of smoking or drinking.

"Nothing can be more churlish than this that millions of people are smoking or dying they think just a hoarding is sufficient.

They are not doing anything for that. But as far as films are concerned we like any other profession, we are supposed to act within the parameters of the law and constitution, which we are doing. And this very insignificant thing to show a character smoking, not glorifying just smoking, to say that it is bad for people. We cannot go by the whims of the minister or the ministry," he said.

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 handrolled bidis dangling from their lips.

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

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.
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Smoking in films: Ban may be diluted

NT Bureau
New Delhi, June 7, 2005

        The ban on showing actors smoking on screen seems to have ignited a fire among the mandarins of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

         The ban, which the I & B Ministry officials feel has been issued unilaterally by the Health Ministry (read Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss), may now be reconsidered.

        The onus of whether the ban is being complied with rests with I & B Ministry, and that is the reason babus in the Ministry were upset that they were not consulted prior to announcing the ban.

        Sources say that Anbumani had indeed written to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry asking for their views on the decision. But he was so keen on announcing the ban 31 May, to coincide with World No Tobacco Day, that he did not wait for the Ministry's officials to get back to him.

        Any way, according to indication I & B Minister Jaipal Reddy and the Health Minister may meet up once the latter comes back from his foreign jaunt. Jaipal Reddy is very keen to clear the confusion and is personally said to be of the opinion that the ban was 'impracticable'.

        Jaipal Reddy is however keen that this should not become an issue of 'public fight' between the two Ministries. Hence, he has been pretty diplomatic in his responses so far.

        He is said to have some ideas in his mind which he would try and get it across to Anbumani once comes from his trip abroad.

        The I & B Minister does not want the ban to be rigid and there should be room for artistic freedom.

        The Health Ministry's sweeping decision has been opposed by all including the Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore. 'Either the film industry or the Censor Board should have been consulted on the matter, she said, adding that she has written to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and expressed her views.

        Her take is also that the ban is difficult to implement.

        With pressure mounting on the Health Ministry, the smoking ban may not be sustainable and hence may be diluted.
http://newstodaynet.com/07jun/rf5.htm

Smoke screen

June 4 2005 13:59 IST
By Samanth Subramanian

They've actually gone and done it. It is now an actual, printed regulation that Indian films cannot show cigarettes being smoked on screen. And this is a real problem. Forget artistic expression. Forget the sheer silliness of the rule. The real mind-bender is: How, as audiences, are we now supposed to tell the Good Guy from the Bad?

We've been brought up to believe that the Bad Guy will stand on street corners, wear sunglasses, lean against a wall, and smoke cigarettes. And that the Good Guy, whenever any variegated tobacco product is thrust into his face, will shudder silently, raise his eyes to heaven, and send up that popular prayer: 'Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.' The Bad Guy will drop lit cigarettes and crush them beneath his heavy black shoe especially for the benefit of the camera; the Good Guy will, if time permits, pick up the crushed butt and carry it in his pocket till he can dispose of it in a trash can.

It's time to worry. What if the Government decides to ban other such clues to character? What if...

Short hair is outlawed? Will both Vamp and Chaste Woman have long, glorious tresses? What if they're walking away from us at the same time? How will we tell one from the other, especially if...

Revealing clothes are outlawed? So we will have item numbers in demure salwar-kameezes? That makes for too much confusion. Are we then supposed to regard her as The Woman To Be Leched At or The Woman To Take Home To Mama? And what about her own state of mind? Won't she be puzzled if...

Stubble is outlawed? The vision of one clean-shaven man fighting another - neither, let us remember, dangling cigarettes from the mouth - is just bewildering. Why should they fight? They are both clean-shaven, surely they must both be on the side of Justice and The Law? Will one of them at least swear, or will it come to a point where...

Swearing is outlawed? Doesn't that mean that we really don't even have a film any more? We will have one Good Guy who merely does not like the face of the other Good Guy. Both Good Guys will have their eyes on Chaste Women, but they will go to a (juice) bar and eye up the other Chaste Women dancing around poles. Then they will go get into a verbal fight, consisting wholly of parliamentary language. Then they will go home. Directors wishing to option this story may contact me by email.

samanth@gmail.com
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Decision on smoking ban hasty: Sharmila Tagore

Press Trust of India
New Delhi, June 3, 2005

Censor Board chief Sharmila Tagore on Friday came out against the way the government went about its decision to ban smoking in films, terming it as a "decision taken in haste and very unaesthetic in taste."

"No self-respecting Director will like it," said Sharmila Tagore, contending that the film industry or the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) should have been consulted on the matter.

Even as she supported the intent behind the decision, Sharmila Tagore, who has shot off a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry putting "her side of the story", said that the decision is "very difficult to implement" in its present form.

"Although I support the intent, it is very difficult to implement, especially when we have foreign movies also coming into the country," she said.

She said that the government should give the industry more time on the matter. "Applying it from August one is very difficult, especially for films, which have been completed or on the verge of completion," she said.

"Something like September or November would be practical to implement," she added.

On May 31, the government announced its decision to ban screening of tobacco products in movies or tele-serials from August 1. The six provisions, introduced in the existing laws, require mandatory display or prominent scroll containing health warning when use of tobacco products is shown in all the movies or in tele-serials irrespective of the timeframe they were shot.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1386894,0006.htm

Bollywood letter on smoking ban

June 3, 2005

Mumbai: A producers' association, which has leading names from the entertainment industry as its members, has lambasted the government for its proposed ban on on-screen smoking, reports our special correspondent.

The Film and Television Producers Guild of India, which counts as its members film producers Yash Chopra, Karan Johar, Subhas Ghai and Rakesh Roshan and television producers UTV, Balaji Telefilms and Nimbus Communications, wrote a letter to Union information and broadcasting minister S. Jaipal Reddy urging him to request the Union health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, to withdraw the decision.

"Given the fact that the Censor Board for Film Certification has laid down guidelines that are sufficient to tackle this issue, it is rather strange that this sudden high-handed decision has been clamped down on this industry," says a statement issued by the guild.

No film till date has stooped to glorify "social evils like smoking and drinking", it said. The ban was being enforced based on the "irrational notion" that using cigarettes in films or serials encourages smoking among the audience.

"In such a scenario, the directive of the health ministry would be of no consequence and the introduction of such a draconian step will only hamper the growth and development of the entertainment industry," it added.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050603/asp/nation/story_4821258.asp

Bollywood fumes at smoking ban

By Elizabeth Davies
02 June 2005

The days when Bollywood fans could sit in hushed cinemas and watch Rajnikanth perform his legendary cigarette flip or heart-throb Shah Rukh Khan's chiselled physique become wreathed in smoke-rings are soon to be over.

Come 1 August, the industry will be banned from producing any movie featuring smoking, and cinemas will be obliged to flash up health warnings over any scene in which an actor from a film predating the ban is shown lighting up.

The tough regulations announced by the Indian government yesterday provoked outrage in Bollywood, with one director condemning them as "absurd".

"One would understand a ban on surrogate advertising, but to completely ban [smoking] is ridiculous, a joke taken too far," Mahesh Bhatt told The Times of India.

But the Delhi government stands by its view that the ban will help dissuade impressionable young people from taking up the habit.

The World Health Organisation says tobacco kills five million people a year and, according to government statistics, more than 800,000 Indians die annually from smoking-related illness.

"As much as 40 per cent of health problems are caused from tobacco consumption. It makes sense to decrease it," the Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said on World No Tobacco Day. "More and more young people and women are taking up tobacco use."

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

The WHO, which claims that when a cinematic heart-throb lights a cigarette his young fans are three times more likely to do the same, welcomed the ban as a sign that Delhi is taking the silver-screen health threat seriously.

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

The Indian government has insisted the regulations will not impinge upon artistic freedom - but film-makers disagree.

"How can such a ban be imposed?" asked a film director, Shabana Azmi. "Films are not made in a vacuum - they are reflections of life. How can a character not be shown as smoking a cigarette if the script so demands? The government should think through this step."

Critics suggest the government would be better advised to raise awareness among the young of the dangers of smoking or even lobby the modelling industry in an attempt to remove some of the glamour from the habit.

"In a democracy like India, how can you impose such guidelines in the virtual world?" asked another director, Mahesh Bhatt. "If the government has the courage, it should ban smoking in real life."

The new law also obliges manufacturers to display the tar and nicotine content on tobacco products, and bans the sale of cigarettes from vending machines or by anyone under 18.
 
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=643378
 

The day art went up in smoke

Sumit Bhattacharya
 June 02, 2005

When I read George Orwell's seminal 1984 and the concept of thoughtcrime -- musings for which the State can throw you in prison -- I shuddered. When I heard from a senior colleague how she had been often rapped on the head in 'liberated' Afghanistan for not keeping it covered, I shuddered.

Dresscrime, I said to myself, what next?

The Indian government has answered -- sightcrime. Watching an onscreen character smoke is injurious for you, it has decided.

There can be no defence for smoking, many are chorusing. It pollutes young minds, leads them astray.

Sure, it is harmful. The State can warn you, it can persuade you.

But does it have the right to decide everything for you?

Can it order you in every aspect of life?

Can it order coffee to be blurred on screen next? If the beverage had been discovered now, it would have been banned as a drug.

Soon, it will want you to only see movies where all characters do yoga in the morning and change their diet daily to suit the latest health study.

Last I heard, this was a free country. But then, in the Land of the Free where Liberty is a statue, the State is trying to get into bedrooms, and the man who thought the Taliban were a rock band till he decided to smoke 'em out has ordered you be fingerprinted when you enter his country.

Social scientists much wiser, much less vice-ridden than ignorant, smoking me have argued the State is a necessary evil.

Who decides when the necessary morphs into evil?

There are bad things and there are good things. But they are not watertight compartments. If there is no black, there can be no shades.

Life makes you take wrong turns. When you realise they were wrong turns, you are wisened by the experience.

Life is black, white and grey. Art is a portrayal of that.

Cinema is an art. It captures life's contradictions.

If there are no contradictions, there is no progress.

If everyone thought alike and felt alike, there would be no art.

It's like an old man and a young, restless gun. The old man wants to advise the young man about what is wrong. When guidance turns to oppression, there is rebellion.

Imagine watching a great, true-to-life biopic of Winston Churchill, Bob Marley, Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara or Shah Rukh Khan, to name just a few. The screen will be a blur, thanks to the ban.

Imagine watching Satyajit Ray's Feluda or Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes on screen, a blur when they light their favourite Charminar and pipe.

Imagine Amitabh Bachchan in Deewar.

The real them is bad for you, the government is saying. Sure, it has the right to. But can it ban you from seeing the real them? That is the question.

Movies today, books tomorrow, your life the day after, art yesterday.

Yes, righteous mobs have always sought to stifle artists, to dictate what they can and cannot portray.

Hitler wanted to breed a 'perfect' population. His vision of perfect. Artists, scientists, thinkers who opposed were to be hunted down. Aren't our governments doing the same?

Aren't they trying to breed a population that only thinks in a certain way?

Aren't they hunting down messengers?

Aren't they deciding what is entertainment by shutting dance bars they themselves have made millions from?

Aren't they slapping dress codes on teachers, students?

They think looking at dirt breeds dirtiness. They don't want to clean up. They want you to put on blinkers.

What is at stake for you, the non-smoker? Every little thing you hold as your own. The onscreen cigarette ban is just a smoke screen. It is the monster's slip, which is showing. If you don't slay the monster now, because it is eating up what you think is harmful, it will grow and feed on what you hold dear.

The monster is the growing interference of the State in your life.

It is hunting the easiest target now -- art.

I like my smoke. I inhale lung-fulls of it. I pay more for it with every Budget. I pay my taxes, which never flow back to better my life. I cower in a corner of a train, dying for the nicotine my body demands while my nonsmoking co-passengers lech and argue whether a woman who is dressed in a certain way nurses a desire to be raped.

My heroes are flawed. I think art should not be fettered. I think there is no good war.

I am the target of governments, health conscious organisations, concerned public et al.

I am more dangerous than the non-smoking, non-drinking rioter, terrorist or soldier who butchers people because they choose different faiths, beliefs, lives.

http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/jun/02sumit.htm
 

Smoking scenes banned on screen as India steps up anti-tobacco war

June 1, 2005

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India has banned all scenes showing smoking, cigarette packs or tobacco advertisements in movies and TV programmes, stepping up its war against tobacco use, a government official said.

"Film actors have a lasting impact on the minds of children and young adults," said Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. "More and more youngsters and women are taking up tobacco use."

A World Health Organisation said it was checking whether India was the first nation to ban tobacco on screen. The Tobacco Control Foundation of India, an anti-smoking lobby, said it believed India was a pioneer in taking such action.

According to the newly issued ministry directives, each time an actor lights a cigarette up on screen, television channels must blur the scene.

Films already shot containing smoking scenes must run a scroll at the bottom of the screen, warning of the dangers of smoking.

The law will apply to domestic and foreign films as well as old films that are released in cinema halls.

"The new rules will become effective as law from August," a senior health ministry official told AFP. "We decided to give them a little time to modify their films and soap operas."

India, which accounts for one-sixth of tobacco illnesses worldwide, was an early ratifier of a global anti-smoking treaty which took effect in March.

Some 2,200 people die daily from tobacco-related diseases in the country of more than one billion people.

Anti-tobacco campaigners applauded the move.

"India is the first country to ban tobacco on screen," Sajeela Maini, president of the Tobacco Control Foundation of India, told AFP.

"We can show the impact of the move as nearly 76 percent of Bollywood films have smoking scenes."

She added that 55,000 children under the age of 15 were picking up the habit of smoking or chewing tobacco in India because they wre influenced by role models.

"You watch a kid imitating (Bollywood star) Shahrukh Khan and the first thing he goes for is a hat over one eye and a cigarette in hand," said Jyotsna Govil, a senior official of the Indian Cancer Society.

"It really hooks them to tobacco."

But Bollywood filmmakers criticised the ban. "One would understand a ban on surrogate advertising, but to completely ban smoking is ridiculous," filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt said, according to The Times of India newspaper.

Activists said the impact on filmmakers' artistic freedom was a small price to pay as it would help to prevent smoking and the huge costs on treatment.

"There are many other ways of showing tension than showing somebody smoking a cigarette. You can chew a lip rather than a cigarette," Govil said.

India has already banned all direct tobacco advertising as well as tobacco sponsorship of sports events but tobacco products are still advertised indirectly.

India is keen to cut down on health costs from tobacco-related illnesses, an annual financial burden of more than 300 billion rupees (seven billion dollars) for the emerging economy.

While there is no state-provided health system, many patients seek treatment in heavily subsidised government hospitals.

Half of Indian males use tobacco, while use among women varies between regions from two per cent to 21 percent.

Health officials say one of India's most urgent needs is to stop the use of chewing tobacco, which has led to the world's highest incidence of oral cancer.