Smoking and Bollywood
Let’s discuss on both side.
Let me put it this way. Putting a ban over smoking in TV can have some positive effects. Firstly we must agree to the fact that people do get influenced by what they see and I don’t think they need to scan their head for this It’s a natural human tendency to imitate the glamour world. Let me take the recent case of Amitabh Bachan’s movie FAMILY wherein he smokes a cigar. Now he is considered as a legend and a brand today. There are his fans who blindly adopt whatever he does or for that matter whichever product he uses. He was asked to apologize for this act of his and he did. Why he did?? Because even he felt it’s wrong and showed his modesty. Ok lets grill our brain some more. Shaktiman serial killed many children. They jumped off from buildings thinking themselves or for that matter imitating him. My point for putting this scenes is that people do get influenced by it .Sharukh Khan the bollywood actor pledged he will never smoke… as there were views that he was creating a negative impact on his fans
The Govt. banned the tobacco companies from putting advertising hoardings for cigarettes and these companies started to use these hoardings for some other permissible products and also at the same time made sure that the brand name gets the same attention as it used to previously.
The latest move by Govt. to ban on-screen smoking, on one side, has some advantages. In Cinema, Cigarette has become synonymous with Style. Many film crazy people are awestruck by stars doing tricks with cigarette. And Children, especially, are bound to be affected by the on-screen antics of stars.On the other side, it is only a preventive measure. What do you about those people who have become chain smokers who have got themselves into the position they are in because of trying to mimic their reel heroes’ gimmicks in real life? Even if the actors themselves come out and campaign against smoking, will the affected people give up smoking? I’m sure many of us might have friends who started smoking just for fun and now feel for falling into it.The on-screen banning does not go to the root of the problem. When cigarettes are no longer available or are exorbitantly priced, people will not be able to smoke as frequently as they used to previously. Along with free counseling for the chain smokers, this move will help them overcome their problem. But this will be a tough call to make for the Govt. as the tobacco industries are a rich source of revenue for them