Bollywood, the Hindi part of the Indian film industry, is the largest film producer in India, and one of the largest film production centres in the world. Producing nearly 1000 films, selling 3.1 billion cinema tickets and grossing close to ten billion dollars a year, Bollywood exerts an extreme stronghold on the Indian culture and influences daily approximately 15 million people who go to see Bollywood films. One such example of the influence of Bollywood culture is tobacco use. India currently has nearly 250 million tobacco users.
Overview
Bollywood has a "long history of portraying heroes and villains with cigarettes or hand-rolled bidis dangling from their lips." According to a WHO study, tobacco is portrayed in 76% of Bollywood films, with cigarettes making up 72% of all the portrayals. [Even though chewing tobacco and bidis account for the majority of tobacco use in India, cigarettes do make up 20% of the market].
Prior to the 1990s, Bollywood portrayed smoking primarily as the vice of villains. The heroes portrayed in classic films were the "poor-but-proud" types. They rescued damsels in distress, performed heroic feats, and beat up gangs of bad guys single-handedly, but never did they risk their image by smoking on screen. Even the villains were classy about the tobacco use, smoking cigars in three-piece suits as they plotted their evil plans. However, the modern day heroes have brought a new tradition of "lighting up a cigarette while performing martial arts stunts." Influenced by Western cinema such as Hollywood films, the heroes in Bollywood movies now have more suave, attitude, and machismo, all which appears to be complemented by the use of cigarettes. As noted by the WHO study, the occurrence of "good guys" in films smoking or using tobacco has gone up from 27% in 1991 to 53% in 2002.
Smoking ban
Proposed by the Ministry of Health in May 2005, a smoking ban that prohibited films and television shows from displaying actors or actresses smoking went into effect on 2 October 2005. The Indian government felt that films were glamorising cigarettes, and with nearly 15 million people going to see Bollywood films on a daily basis, Health Minister Anubumani Ramadoss claimed that the ban would "protect the lives of millions of people who could become addicted to smoking under the influence of movies. Under the smoking ban, smoking scenes in any movie was prohibited, including any old or historical movies where, some argued, smoking was necessary to make the depiction accurate. If producers wished to show a character smoking, the scene would have to be accompanied by a note saying that smoking is injurious to health, along with disclaimers at the beginning and end of films.
During the tobacco ban, the use of tobacco was still implied in movies and television, even if it was not explicitly shown; it was "sung and danced about" instead. So Bollywood, in conjunction with tobacco companies, was still able to get around the smoking ban. Bollywood was also able to bypass the tobacco ban because of the lack of enforcement. Corruption within the government and police lead to officials not being successfully impose such policies, such as the smoking ban in cinema. As noted by one, "The authorities aren't organized enough...I'll just pay a bribe."
The ban yet received support from the Indian public, in addition to support from some Bollywood actors and actresses. Famous actors and actresses like Vivek Oberoi and Urmila Matondkar participated in public service announcements that talked about the benefits of avoiding tobacco, such as Urmila's advertisement that said, "Every cigarette reduces life by three minutes. Isn't that scary? If you're not scared, then you are not brave, you are foolish." In addition, other actors joined the WHO campaign in India to reduce tobacco use.
However, the smoking ban was also highly opposed by most in the film industries. How can such a ban be imposed?" asked a film director, Shabana Azmi. "Films are not made in a vacuum – they are reflections of life. How can a character not be shown as smoking a cigarette if the script so demands?" Many actors, directors, and producers argued that the ban on smoking in film would be a direct impingement on their artistic freedoms, which in turn would be a violation of their democratic rights. Many in Bollywood also believed that their films didn't directly impact the public because smoking is viewed as a superficial prop, not a possible negative influence. A number of producers also argued that the government should instead focus their efforts on the nationwide public smoking ban that went into effect on 2 October 2008.