India to Ban Smoking in Films and Tv Shows

The Indian government is to outlaw all images of smoking in Bollywood films and television shows in a move praised by campaigners as a "sensible step" but attacked by film-makers as a curb on artistic freedom.

The ban, the most comprehensive of its kind in the world, will outlaw shots showing cigarette packs and advertising hoardings. Foreign movies and serials, increasingly popular especially when dubbed into local Indian languages, will have the offending images electronically blurred.

The ministry of health said that films predating the ban with offending scenes would need to a run a series of health warnings across the bottom of the screen.

Thailand also banned smoking scenes in films in 2000.

It appears difficult to see how the Indian film industry will cope with such strict measures.

Bollywood's biggest star, Shah Rukh Khan, is a singing, dancing, chain-smoking actor whose films are clouded by cigarette smoke. And with a production line bigger than Hollywood's, Indian movies have in recent years moved away from soppy romantic musicals to ape the west's blockbusters, where bad and good guys are seen smoking heavily.

The film director Shyam Benegal told the Times of India that the regulations would interfere with artistic expression. "The smoking act comes in handy when you want to develop a character. The ban does not make sense."

Experts said it would be difficult to see how events such as Formula One, in creasingly popular since the arrival of an Indian driver, would be dealt with by broadcasters.

But the World Health Organisation, which estimates smoking is linked to more than 800,000 deaths in India a year, mainly among men aged between 25 and 69, lauded the move. "The portrayal of attractive people smoking has an influence on young people as some of them identify with those on the screens," said a WHO spokeswoman.

Officials in India said they were determined to act after a recent WHO study "held Bollywood responsible for glamorising smoking".

"Film actors have a lasting impact on the minds of children and young adults," said Anbumani Ramadoss, India's health minister.

In May 2004, India banned smoking in public places as well as tobacco advertising and sponsorship by tobacco firms of sporting events.

However, the law is lightly enforced and cigarette smoke and butts can be found in most places where smoking is supposedly illegal.