Smokefree Movies in India- Converting Evidence into Action

Abstract

Prevalence of tobacco use is high among adults and youth in India, resulting in high mortality from diseases associated with it. Studies in different countries have established the consistency of the association between movie smoking and adolescent smoking. Besides having the largest population of adolescents in the world, India also is one of the major movies producing countries. Moreover a large number of Indian films have been found to display tobacco branding. Indian movies have large viewership not only in the country, but all over the world, making youth vulnerable to exposure to smoking scenes. The Indian anti tobacco law provides for ban on all forms of advertisements, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products. The Indian Government tried to regulate smoking scenes in movies as per the provisions under the law way back in the year 2005. This was met with strong resistance by the film industry arguing inference in the freedom of expression by these provisions which were challenged in the court of law. Subsequent to support from the judiciary and positive rulings from the court of law, the Government went ahead and implemented regulation on scenes showing smoking and other tobacco use in movies and television programmes in October 2012. The law is under implementation For desirable and effective impact of the legislative provisions for regulating scenes depicting smoking and tobacco use in the movies, it is imperative to ensure that the motion pictures no longer serve as a source of tobacco promotion aimed at adolescents and youth.