The film industry's refusal to carry anti-tobacco health spots and warnings during films in cinema screens has upset health experts. Earlier this week, the Film and TV Producers Guild of India visited the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry in New Delhi to push their demand.
The industry wants health spots portraying patients' plight should be pulled off cinema halls. It says film directors will engage in scripting and filming new anti-smoking messages starring popular Bollywood actors.
It may set a bad precedent
The public health fraternity has criticized the I&B ministry for being receptive to such demands by the filmwallahs. "By doing away patient testimonials and scroll warnings, the central government will set a bad precedent for public health awareness internationally. India had first adopted the World Health Organization's model in 2012, and Western countries hold India as a role model to curtain pictorial warnings," said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, professor, head and neck cancer, Tata Memorial Hospital in Parel.
Ads with actors won't be effective
Dr Chaturvedi said that a good actor will never require the crutches of cigarettes to express his creativity. Moreover, he believes that the very actors, who endorse pan masala and cigarettes in films, if star in anti-tobacco health spots, the social message will be rendered ineffective. He further added, "The I&B ministry cannot issue arbitrary statements without consultation with the Health Ministry. The latter is the ultimate authority which decides on screening of public health awareness messages in media and public places."
Govt dancing to tunes of tobacco lobby
Dr PC Gupta, director, Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health said, "After hard negotiations between the health and the I&B ministry, the anti-tobacco notifications were implemented. After the change in the government, the existing members in the health ministry cannot keep giving in to the tobacco lobby. It is a dark period for public health when vested interests are gaining an upper hand over health of individuals."
Anti-tobacco activists, already upset over a series of gaffes by senior politicians, hint at a pre-meditated advocacy program being implemented by the pro-tobacco lobby
Ignorant politicians doing damage
"As per Union health ministry guidelines, a pop-up message against smoking has to be shown whenever there is any scene in a film depicting smoking. The plea by the filmmakers comes even as a controversy has been sparked over remarks by political parties on the use of tobacco," said Devika Chaddha, vice-president, Salaam Bombay Foundation.
