Priya Gupta (BOMBAY TIMES; May 6, 2014)

Woody Allen’s Oscar nominated Blue Jasmine did not see an India release as, reportedly, Woody Allen refused to accommodate the Ministry of Health’s mandatory anti-smoking message required to be inserted on scenes showing characters smoking in the film. Anurag Kashyap’s Ugly debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and has been ready for release for a while, but the film has still not been released in India due to the Censor Board insisting on the super of ‘Smoking Kills’ which the Ugly team has challenged, owing to creative reasons as they feel that if smoking is to be really stopped, then it needs to be banned.

 To come to think of it, what is so special about smoking? Is it more harmful than drugs, consuming alcohol or violence shown in our films? And what about consuming the colas, chips and all kinds of junk food considered unhealthy by all health organisations? For the sake of argument, at least smoking is not illegal, but our films show violence, rape, gangsters, riots which in fact are illegal. If watching films impacts our behavior and that is what the Ministry of Health or the Censor Board wants to control, then they must choose to put ‘Supers’ on each of the above. Why isolate smoking?

 If the Government of India feels that smoking is bad, then it should ban smoking. But if they can’t do that for revenue reasons or for any other, why expect filmmakers to do what the government themselves are unable to do. Putting a super of ‘Smoking Kills’ not only takes away the creativity from filmmaking, but also reduces the viewing pleasure of an audience. If we want people to stop smoking in our country, the real solution lies in banning smoking as against putting creative breaks. On a lighter note, in case the Censor Board has a ‘Super’ fixation, they should put supers every time there are scenes showing consumption of alcohol or drugs, rape, violence or even people eating junk food because otherwise it seems that the government themselves are addicted to smoking.

OUR SUGGESTIONS FOR OTHER SUPERS FOR THE GOVERNMENT: Committing rape will send you to jail
Consuming drugs will lead to prosecution
Alcohol is injurious to health
Theft or fraud will send you to jail
Eating junk food will make you obese