HRIDAY writes to Woody Allen

Last week, Woody Allen’s film Blue Jasmine hit headlines in India, but not for its impending release. The Hollywood filmmaker refused to release his film in India in the wake of the implementation of rules regulating depiction of tobacco use in films. Post the brouhaha, Delhi-based HRIDAY (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth) has written to the director.
In the letter, they have explained that more than one hundred famous Hollywood films including ‘The Hobbit’, DJango-Unchained etc., released in India over the past year have complied with the law in full spirit and have also done well at the box office. Similarly, Bollywood production houses too started complying with the law as soon it came into force. The statement released by them says that all these instances substantiate the fact that complying with the rules nowhere distracts the audience or limits the creativity of the filmmakers in any way.
“We need to protect children and adolescents, who get influenced by glamourized and unnecessary smoking shown on screen. A study conducted by HRIDAY revealed that youth exposed to tobacco use in films are TWICE more likely to be tobacco users.” said Dr. Monika Arora, Senior Director HRIDAY. “It is encouraging to see some Indian film makers supporting this public health policy measure and no longer need cigarettes or smoking as crutches to define their characters” asserted Dr. Arora
Tobacco use continues to be one of the biggest challenges to public health. The magnitude of this burden is so annihilating that it kills nearly 6 million people globally and more than 1 million Indians each year. Nearly 15 percent of Indian youth consume tobacco in one form or the other and around 5500 youth start using tobacco everyday.