[icernet] Stop smoking on screen

[Arul Selvan]

The question now is, are we going to allow the death and destruction of our
younger citizens? Was not Indian cinema also envisaged as a powerful social
tool? Don't producers, directors and actors claim to have a responsibility
towards the community which helps them to survive and shine? Talk to any
movie-man, and he will readily acknowledge in private the venom of a
cigarette. But transport him to a film set, and he transforms like a
chameleon. The urge to play "hero", be one, and look like one is
overwhelming in an industry bent on fantasising life, and worse, making
audiences believe that this is what is true. Now with financiers and
producers dictating terms to scriptwriters and directors in a market with
many more flops than hits, the cigarette has come to be seen as a glamorous
prop. The people who can really help are actors and actresses. They must
refuse to smoke on screen.

Source:
http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/06/12/stories/2003061200201000.htm