Mumbai doctors invite Woody Allen for an anti-tobacco lesson

Oncologists from the city are up in the arms against the decision of Hollywood director Woody Allen not to compromise his creative freedom and adhere to Indian laws. Allen has earned the ire of cancer specialists for refusing to release his film Blue Jasmine  in the country only because he did not want to run the scroll warning against the dangers of cigarette smoking to viewers.

The oncologists associated with the Tata Memorial Hospital have now written to the director and invited him to the centre to make him aware of the plight of tobacco users.

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital, said, “Allen’s decision can give a voice to several disgruntled Bollywood people for whom freedom of expression is superior to the right to life.”

Questioning the relation between tobacco and creativity, Dr Chaturvedi said tobacco is estimated to kill one billion people in this century and one can not defend smoking as expression of creativity and artistic freedom. “I refuse to believe that a talented actor requires cigarette to express emotions and creativity?” added Dr Chaturvedi.

Happy with the fact that the movie was not released in India, Dr Chaturvedi said by releasing the movie in India, it may have added few thousand more smokers to the ever growing numbers of youth picking up this lethal habit.

“Cinema has got tremendous influence in India with actors being treated as gods/goddesses and it is not surprising that some construct even temples for them. They influence day-to-day behaviour of Indian youth such as their dress sense, hair style etc. Many youth promptly got their heads shaved to emulate Amir Khan in his movie Gajani. Their positive portrayal of smoking is bound to make positive impact on their followers,” said Dr Chaturvedi.

According to a recent survey conducted by Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA), 84% of people surveyed agreed that the advertisement showing ill-effects of tobacco in the multiplexes during screening of the movie does make an impact on them.

“During the survey, 44% people accepted that after seeing the gory advertisements they feel motivated to quit tobacco. This feels like an achievement. Carrying a warning sign during an on-screen smoking scene should continue to be mandatory even if the filmmakers oppose it,” said Anita Peters, director of CPAA.

Creative egotism or stubbornness?
Hollywood director Woody Allen, 77, has stopped his upcoming film Blue Jasmine from being released in India after he learned that anti-tobacco advertisements would be inserted in its smoking scenes.

According to Indian laws, health warnings are mandatory when a character smokes in the film, and cinemas have to play anti-smoking advertisements before every movie.

According to media reports, Allen has reportedly refused to accommodate these ads during his film.