Smoking in Bollywood Films

For some unfathomable reason, a person walking with a cigarette in their hand is perceived as cool and sexy. The old villains and the new age heroes, all have portrayed smoking on screen and have impressed audiences with their attitude and their style. Though smoking kills and it has numerous hazardous health effects on the human body, portrayal of smoking in films has always been a basis for character establishment.

 

Smoking, or even chewing of tobacco, is seriously harmful with a strong possibility of turning fatal. When turning to Tinsel Town, the Indian Government has banned smoking in films and has made it compulsory to issue a statutory warning in the opening credits. Screening and banning of smoking will hopefully lead to a positive response from audiences and help to build a healthier, non-smoking society.

 

When films like Heroine and Fashion come across your mind, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra holding the tobacco stick are some of the potent images that are remembered. The characters they portrayed belonged to the glamour industry. They learned to smoke, because they believed that smoking will help them in times of depression and failures. 

A similar portrayal was done in The Dirty Picture. It was said that Vidya Balan had smoked 10 cigarettes for the film. Bollywood personalities choose to smoke to make their characters appear more realistic on screen when they do not smoke in reality. 

 

Award winning Kahaani showed officer Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) smoking in front of pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) sending the wrong message to society. Though such a minor thing, the impact is quite harmful. John Abraham starrer No Smoking was not received well at the box office, however, sent an important message about smoking to society.  His character, a heavy chain smoker had decided to quit smoking for his loved ones.

 

In general, looking at both the films, one thing is clear, smoking in no way helps the on screen person or the off screen person. Smoking only kills and the message should reach one and all. Smoking to appear stylish or to flaunt attitude is a very wrong message sent out to society through films.

It's not only films which imply and promote smoking; the decision to not smoke should come from within self. Smoking certainly causes diseases and distress to the lungs and other parts of the respiratory tract and also may lead to damage of the heart. Smoking and chewing of tobacco leads to oral cancer, along with increasing the risk for numerous other body-wide cancers as well.

 

On a concluding note, smoking or no smoking depends on the individual and their beliefs. It's up to the person to be able to differentiate between the reel and the real. We, at BollyCurry, request our readers to remain tobacco free as it has numerous deleterious health effects, not only to you but others around you too, and the consequences can even lead to death.