Professional Report - Smoke Free Movies

connected with the maid who is having the same problem. Because they are fighting physically. And the maid
catches them. A few scenes before, she finds her maid having a fight with her husband and she finds it vulgar
and obscene and makes her feel superior. Till the same thing happens to her and she discovers that she’s
exactly in the same situation as her. I feel that irrespective of your class distinction, when you’re stripped off the
cosmetic look, nothing has changed. When you have a Gujarat riot, or what happens in Haryana, Jhajhar, it’s
the stone age, just a hundred kilometres from Delhi. With all your claims of being in the 21st century. This is
what your real face is. With all the claims that we make, you have not moved away, you have only reined it.
The mask is dying to slip off and when it does slip off you get a glimpse of the real self.
As a filmmaker how open are you to the idea of putting in anti-smoking messages in your films.
I don’t think smoking is a big thing – I won’t be an evangelist and go and convert people. I would only do it if I
had a character who was created, a so-called purist, a self-obsessed, do-gooder who feels that the world is
being destroyed by cigarette smoking. Well if you have a character like this, then fine. I would not take a moral
position on it. There are evangelists…I have nothing against them.
You said you’re not a smoker…
I used to smoke, I gave it up. I found it unnecessary. Dependence of any kind is unnecessary. I was smoking a
lot. I gave it up. I used to drink a lot. I gave it up. So I find that a person who has really gone through the
process will not pontificate or moralise. If you want to smoke, you smoke, I don’t have a problem.
Thank you.
Boney Kapoor
Does Bollywood glamorise smoking?
There was a time when villains used to hold a cigarette and blow smoke circles in the air purely for style, but
not anymore. There is now awareness amongst the public and even among the actors that smoking is injurious
to health.
As a producer are you aware of any tobacco placements deals that have been struck in Bollywood?
Well there are product placements taking place in Bollywood too. For instance in Yaadein, Subhash Ghai had
a deal with Coca Cola wherein the lead characters used the soft drink to convey a lot of things. Ditto in the case
of Sooraj Barjatya’s Hum Saath Saath Hain. We have also done a deal with Pepsi for our forthcoming release
Khushi. So there have been cases of product placements in Bollywood. But nothing in my opinion that has
involved tobacco or smoking.
One recent example of heavy smoking is Company, a film that you produced. Why is everyone on a cigarette
most of the time?
But that film was a depiction of the Underworld. Most of these people, you know, have nothing to do. They
while away their time by smoking and gambling! So perhaps it was even the Director’s view too. Also one has
to probably exaggerate a little bit on screen. And that is why smoking was overused maybe a wee bit in the
film.
Who decides that a character will smoke—is it in the script, decided by an actor, a director or a producer?
There is no set rule for this. Sometimes an actor feels comfortable holding a cigarette, cigar or a pipe in his
hand. Sometime a Director feels sometimes a cigar or a pipe can add to his personality. Or perhaps the way an
actor holds it or smoke could add to the characterization. Basically the decision is made between the two of
them (director and actor) and the writer. Also most of this decisions are taken while the scene is being
discussed on the set or while filming is on.
Off screen when you interact with professionals from your industry, do you think smoking is on the rise?
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