Shah Rukh admitted that it's a "shameful thing" that while he supported the fight against cancer -- he lost his father to cancer in 1981 -- he still smokes.
BANGALORE: Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan says he is desperately trying to quit smoking.
"I am desperately trying to kick the habit", he said as he launched a cancer drug developed by city-based Biocon.
Shah Rukh admitted that it's a "shameful thing" that while he supported the fight against cancer -- he lost his father to cancer in 1981 and mother to "somehow related to the same disease" ten years later, as he puts it -- he continues to smoke.
"I am trying my best (to quit smoking). But it's difficult. I am trying to reduce it. I have reduced it (smoking) a lot," he said, adding it (smoking) is a weakness and it would take while for him to succeed in kicking the habit.
When a reporter said there is a move to give an A certificate for his new movie Don because there is a smoking scene, Shah Rukh had a dig at it. He said sarcastically, "The rule is a rule."
“If there is a rule that from tomorrow, we don't stop at a red (traffic) signal, we stop at green signal.”
Then, he added that, "it's a good thinking by the legal system… who makes the rule."
On a more serious note, he said, "We are believers in democracy... in terms of freedom. (But) when it comes to culture, we suddenly are quite undemocratic. Creativity is not democratic in our country at times."
Shah Rukh said when he did the character, he insisted that when Don (played by himself) puts a cigarette in his mouth, he says, "I am trying to quit it" when gang members come to light it.
"If you are talking about an A certificate for that, you see what I do next... smoke coming out of all my orifices."
Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has objected to the actors' on-screen smoking, including Khan's in the Farhan Akhtar-directed movie whose promos have gone on air. The movie is set for release on October 20.
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