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“The conflict is over”: An insider’s unique perspective on smoking in Bollywood films

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai smoking in Guzaarish.

Bollywood films were a staple of my childhood. Movies were omnipresent: in classrooms, on the streets, on magazine covers, at dinnertime conversations… even in my dreams.

Cut to the late 90s—I began a career in movie advertising, and found myself working in the field I had idolized as a child, often hobnobbing with some of Bollywood’s top directors. Words like “creative freedom” and “let your imagination go wild” were tossed around with abandon in my workplace.

Now, I work with World Lung Foundation, where I have begun to realize the enormity of the smoking menace and its awesome power to cut short human lives all over the world.

Recently, I participated in a workshop on smoking in Indian films and the role of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in regulating them. The Salaam Bombay Trust organized the event, with support from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOH) and WHO India.

When I first saw the topic of discussion, the creative animal inside me instinctively reacted. “Creative freedom must be prioritized at any cost,” I thought, “whether it results in smoking or not.”

But somewhere deep inside my mind, another voice spoke to me gently. “Don’t you know that India has the second highest rate of death from smoking in the world?”

My internal conflict began – but what followed thereafter was something that every person who condones smoking in films should know. The statistics and arguments I heard at the workshop were eye-openers, to say the least. Speaker after passionate speaker detailed the terrible harm done by smoking in movies, including the effect on the impressionable minds of children and young adults.

One distinguished speaker quoted a 2003 cohort study published in The Lancet, which established a strong relationship between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among youth.

Another presenter remarked that movies in India attract big crowds, and movie stars attract even bigger crowds. The influence of Bollywood stars in India cannot be overemphasized; the actor Rajnikanth, for instance, is so popular that he has temples built in his name. As the speaker said, “What happens when a superstar like Shah Rukh Khan [another Bollywood icon, and a chain-smoker in real life] lights up a cigarette casually in a bar in the middle of a popular song? Kids and teenagers imitate him; they emulate his every dance move, his hairstyle, his mannerisms, his style of dressing… you name it.”

I also learned that 76% of all Indian movies examined in a WHO study portrayed tobacco consumption in some form. Of these, 58% of the films had scenes where “good” characters were shown smoking. As many as 62 cases of brand exposure in films have been recorded in the last 12 years, of which the Indian tobacco giant ITC accounted for the highest number of exposures. Shocking, by any stretch of the imagination!

Needless to say, the creative animal inside me was jolted. Do our film stars, producers and directors really understand the burden of responsibility they carry on their shoulders? Or are they deliberately turning a blind eye to this epidemic simply because it suits them? Scriptwriters seem to be working overtime to write dialogues that depict smoking as a macho, cool thing to do; they script situations that blatantly promote smoking as a stress-reliever or mood-elevator. Scenes of top actors blowing smoke rings or stylishly flipping cigarettes are being inserted into many films, most likely at the behest of the strong pro-tobacco lobby. Our film stars, producers and directors seem to be turning a blind eye to the tobacco epidemic, which kills five million people worldwide every year.

CBFC justifies their actions under the Delhi High Court ruling of January 2009, which overturned MOH’s May 2005 smoking ban in all TV and film scenes. One of the speakers opined that ever since the MOH order, producers and directors have become much smarter; they are now finding new ways to promote smoking in their films, such as using close-up shots of cigarette, bidi or gutka packs, or shooting scenes in front of tobacco products and advertisements.

All of these actions are direct infringements of multiple regulations, which state that CBFC has to ensure that scenes which encourage, justify or glamorize consumption of tobacco products or smoking are not shown.

There are some efforts to combat pro-tobacco propaganda from within the movie industry itself. In another presentation, a participant talked about depicting smoking as an “uncool” social activity. The speaker showed us a video created by one of Bollywood’s top singers, Shaan, in which he sings in Hindi, “Life se panga mat le yaar” (“Let’s not take undue liberties with life”), urging Indian youth to lead a healthy, fun-filled life without smoking. Unfortunately, because we have no direct evidence to prove that such promotions are successful, their effectiveness remains questionable.

As the workshop progressed, I continued to think, “Do the people who passionately speak for creative freedom in films have any idea of the harm they are causing to an entire generation who are influenced by this dangerous imagery?” I am sure that if these creative minds were fully informed about the dangers of smoking in a logical manner and were exposed to the horrors of the diseases caused by tobacco use, they would begin to see the harm in their choices.

As for me, I am delighted to be making a small contribution to tobacco control in India. The conflict in my mind between creative freedom and social responsibility is truly and decisively over.