New Delhi, January 27
Concerned over the impression they leave on youngsters when they smoke on silver screen, union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss has urged Bollywood mega stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan to desist from smoking in their films.

“The movies are most responsible (for encouraging smoking). When I said movies should not have smoking scenes we have statistics which show that 52 per cent of children have their first puff of a cigarette because of movie celebrities,” he said.

“..I have already made appeals to Shah Rukh Khan...I would like to make an appeal to him and Amitabh Bachchan and all other personalities,” Ramadoss said in an interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme. He was also critical of Khan for smoking at a cricket match.

“The government is going to implement new rules which would mean that by June no one can smoke in any place where there are employees, whether it’s any office, restaurant, bar or anywhere in the country except on the roads or your own homes, if your wife allows it,” he said.

Questioned on his pet theme of pictorial warnings on cigarette and bidi packets, he said: “I am sure they would be effective. All this time we have been saying things to people. But I believe it is now time to scare them.

“In contrast to developed countries where tobacco incidence is going down, in India, it is going up frighteningly.”

When confronted with the fact that the government had agreed to pictorial warnings 18 months ago but on four occasions failed to implement its own decision, the minister replied by saying that the government’s intention was to enforce pictorial warnings and added there “are no two views on that”.

He explained the delay in terms of what he called “political activity and the judiciary”.

“It’s related to both political activity and the judiciary …it (the delay) has nothing to do with the Cabinet or the group of ministers,” he added.

Asked how he responded to Pranab Mukherjee’s (the head of the group of ministers handling the issue) statement that pictorial warnings must not be “repulsive”, Ramadoss said: “I don’t like to comment on what is the view of the group of ministers because it is an internal consultation….personally, I believe that pictures should scare the people but then it’s the decision of the government, of the group of ministers, and we have to take into consideration various sections of people, including the (tobacco industry) employees…let me put it this way we are going to do it progressively.”

Holding the movies most responsible for encouraging smoking, he said: “Absolutely not. What was the necessity? See these are celebrities and millions of youngsters look up to these celebrities...I again say to celebrities, in whichever field they are, whether it’s movies or sports, not to do these things in public.”