New Delhi, July 25 : The newspaper advertisements
of
Madhur Bhandarkar's upcoming movie "
Heroine", that features lead
actress
Kareena Kapoor with a cigarette on movie sets, have drawn flak
for blatant violation of anti-tobacco laws.
In a letter written
to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, NGO Health Related
Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (
HRIDAY) points out violation of
law, regulating display of tobacco use in films.
"Leading
national dailies (on May 23) and online versions of several newspapers
carried an 'on the sets' photograph of '
Heroine'. The picture shows
actress
Kareena Kapoor smoking a cigarette and holding a glass of amber
colour liquid, depicted as alcohol," the letter said.
"This
amounts to a blatant violation of the Rule 9(2) of the said
notification," the letter addressed to Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, joint
secretary in the information and broadcasting ministry read.
The
letter cited the notification saying that "any promotional material and
posters of the films and television programmes shall not depict any
tobacco products or their usage in films".
"It is a violation of
Section 5 of Control of Tobacco Products Act, which prohibits all forms
of advertisement (direct, indirect/surrogate), promotion and sponsorship
of tobacco products."
The
HRIDAY letter has also asked the
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) and the Central Board of
Film Certification (
CBFC), as the implementing agencies of the rules,
to direct the promoters and filmmakers to recall the promotional
content.
"We strongly urge MoIB to check for the compliance of
such scenes with the notified regulations at the time of screening for
acquiring certification from the
CBFC," it said.
While the movie
is slated to release Sep 21, the activists have expressed concern over
the promo leaving adverse impact on people.
"We are concerned
that till then this photograph would make rounds in the media leaving an
adverse impact on the public especially, women and children," said
Radhika Shrivastav, deputy director,
HRIDAY.
"There is a very
high prevalence of tobacco use among Indian women with nearly 20 percent
of them using tobacco in various forms. Studies have also shown that
Indian adolescents who are exposed to tobacco use in Bollywood films are
twice as likely to be tobacco users," Shrivastav added.
© IANS 
