Smoking Ban on screen: required? - Page 2

Originally posted by: SholaJoBhadkey

In the past only the bad guys smoked. People smoked even then. Now don't say Pran, KN Singh, Prem Chopra et al were treated as role models. 😆

😆 In the past it was an illusion that only bad guys smoke and those who smoked where considered people with bad character 😆 But now the scenario has changed... And smoking is meant for both bad and good people... 😉

Its a proven fact that people have started giving polio drops to children below the age of five after Amitabh and Aish started Advertising.. So, it does matter as to what these actors do on screen... 😊

Originally posted by: TallyHo

Let us smoke on screen, says Shah Rukh Khan

Mon Jan 28, 2008 5:47pm IST

NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) - Actor and smoker Shah Rukh Khan has declined a request by the health minister that he quit cigarettes, at least on screen.

Anbumani Ramadoss, the health minister, says the habits of celebrities such as Khan are an enormous influence on young people. But Khan, Hindi cinema's most bankable star, sees no grounds for censorship.

"I think there is a huge amount of creative freedom that should be allowed in cinema," he told a press conference broadcast on the Times Now news channel on Monday. "It is make-believe ... We should not have huge censorship."

Khan recently played a glamorous Mumbai gangster in the film "Don", which was advertised with a lingering shot of him exhaling slow-motion billows of cigarette smoke at the screen, cut with shots of him in sharp clothes and dancing with beautiful women.

But even if film heroines are not repelled by the habit, Ramadoss is.

"Please don't smoke in your movies, Mr Shah Rukh Khan," the health minister said in an interview with CNN-IBN broadcast on Sunday. "Children are being affected. Fourteen-year-olds are taking to tobacco."

More than half of Indian men and about one in 10 Indian women smoke or chew tobacco, according to government figures.

Ramadoss has been pushing for restrictive laws to put people off the addictive habit, which can cause cancers and other diseases.

He proposed an outright ban on smoking onscreen in 2006 and that tobacco packets be emblazoned with grisly photographs of smoking-related diseases, but neither suggestion has yet made it into law.

However, Khan stressed that he was no advocate for smoking, even if his art requires him to light up occasionally.

"Every time I'm in front of a television channel I always say, 'children, don't smoke, it kills you.'" He told reporters. "It's the worst habit and I want to give it up as soon as possible."

- Are film actors role models for the impressionable youngsters?

- Is asking for a ban on smoking on screen an intereference with the creativity of film makers?

- What about alochol... should that be banned too?

- How far is too far for censorship in cinema?

Now that's just plain ridiculous. Why cant we just take responsibility for our own actions? Must we really blame celebrities and the media for all our mistakes? Geeez. It isnt as though Shahrukh's out there personally distributing cigarettes to every kid around the corner and encouraging them to smoke. The guy has admitted over and over again that it's a nasty habit and that smoking isnt something to be admired....nobody listens to that...and him smoking a cigarette in Don is going to make people start smoking?! 😕 Umm. He also sssssstttuttered in dddaarr...that didnt exactly start a stutterring epidemic in India, now did it? I think sometimes people need to stop blaming others for their own actions. It's just so easy to point fingers and say I started smoking because Shahrukh made me do it. How about you started smoking because you wanted to? Nobody makes you do anything...you do it yourself. And I'm sorry I just dont buy into the whole celebrities should be role models theory either...if you're looking up to another human being with his/her whole share of flaws and expecting them to be perfect and behave perfect at all times, it just aint going to happen. Celebrities are just human beings, and to put them on a pedestal and expect them to behave like demi-gods and goddesses isnt realistic.

Phew. I feel much better after all the venting. It's okay Shahrukh, baby, I got your back. 😛

Originally posted by: Anu.Rad

😆 In the past it was an illusion that only bad guys smoke and those who smoked where considered people with bad character 😆 But now the scenario has changed... And smoking is meant for both bad and good people... 😉

Its a proven fact that people have started giving polio drops to children below the age of five after Amitabh and Aish started Advertising.. So, it does matter as to what these actors do on screen... 😊

Actively advertising and lending support to an action is one thing, playing a character in a movie and performing an action as a character in the movie is a whole different thing. It's one thing to act as a murderer in a movie and start killing people, a whole different thing to come out on TV and say "I think killing people is awesome, so let's all go forth and kill people". See what I mean? 😆 We hope people watching a movie have the sensibilities to appreciate that that is a character in a movie and not an actual person in real life. Otherwise, we've got a whole set of different issues to tackle.

People with reasonable grey cells donot try to implement all the things on reel in their real life.😛 People who have scarcity in grey cells indulge in stupid things whatever happens😛.
However, if some person likes Salman Khan action.....he may not imitate sallu in real life also....something like taking off the shirt in the middle of the road ....