Stubbed out!

Though the judiciary has no problems with stars puffing cigarettes on screen, reference to brands might still be a problem on celluloid. The film censor board recently stumped the makers of Aa Dekhen Zaara by ordering them to make changes to a particular scene in which the actor makes a reference to a cigarette brand Panama.

Vinayak Azad, regional officer of the censor board in Mumbai, reveals, “There was a scene in which the actor goes to a shop and asks its owner to give him a Panama. Now, this is a direct reference to a brand and is like promoting it. We readily asked the film-makers to either modify the scene or chop it.” Advertising cigarettes or alcohol brands is not allowed in India.

Jehangir Surti, the director of the Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu starrer, adds, “It is true that the censor board conveyed this to us. We have modified the scene post their intimation. We did not want to chop the scene and so we made slight changes to it. We now have the actor coming to the shop and saying ‘give me a paan’ instead of Panama. It is not a very important scene in the film but we wanted to stick to it than chopping it. We are really happy that not a single scene has come under the censor scissors.”

In January, the Delhi High Court had quashed the government’s 2005 notification of banning smoking in films. The health ministry was spearheading this proposal which was opposed by several film personalities. The ministry had argued that around 8 lakh people die every year due to smoking related problems and it was wrong to glamourise this health hazard. The World Health Organisation had also welcomed this move.