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Channel executives said the ban hardly mattered since they had
already been following self-regulation on this issue. Sony Entertainment
Television EVP & business head Tarun Katial had a crisp reply
in store. "We have no actors smoking in our serials and we
don't subscribe to this practice," he snaps.
Sahara One Television programming head Kumud Chowdhary expresses
the channel's willingness to follow the government directives on
the issue. But at the same time, she opines her personal view that
such a ban is not actually fair from a creative point of view.
"Even earlier there were these S&P (standards and practices)
directives that we can't show people actually drinking or smoking
on television. We could show them with a cigarette or a bottle in
hand, but not actually smoking or drinking. So we were abiding by
that. Now with this new directive being passed, we will abide by
this too, but it isn't actually fair as sometimes these situations
are an integral part of the storyline and helps in creating an atmosphere
for a particular setting," she says.
"We had taken a decision on this some time back. According
to this, we don't show any of our serial actors as smoking on-screen.
Earlier, we used to run a strip saying "Cigarette smoking is
injurious to health" whenever such a scene came. So the present
ban doesn't really affect us, "says Zee TV programming head
Ashwini Yardi.
Star executives were unavailable for comment at the time of filing
this report.
Ajay Sinha, director of Zee shows Hasratein and Astitva
calls the government "stupid' for imposing such a ban. "The
government should impose a ban on smoking instead of banning it
on television or at least identify where one can and cannot smoke.
Serials do not encourage smoking, it just depicts a life style.
They don't impose ban on smoking because they earn revenue by way
of taxes. If smoking is banned in life, it will automatically be
banned on TV. They are trying to shift the onus onto TV industry,"
says Sinha.
Producer-director Paritosh Painter opines that a complete ban is
uncalled for. "A ban can be applied to scenes were cigarette
smoking is shown as a style statement. But a scene where cigarette
smoking is essential to the script should be allowed."
Actor Rohit Roy calls it a "good move". "Actors
are role models. And a large section of Indians are uneducated.
Seeing their favourite star smoking can induce such habits in them
too. If I grew up seeing Amitabh Bachchan smoking, I would probably
take it up thinking if God can why can't I? Recently my serial on
Zee had scenes of me smoking. But then we decided not to show any
more of such scenes," he reasons.
Jaya Bhattacharya, the Payal of Kyunki... prefers healthy
life to creative freedom. "Yes, it does bring limitations to
a person's character if he has to be shown in a negative role. But
healthy life is more important.
Mihir Misra, who plays a doctor in reel life in the Star Plus show
Sanjivani-A Medical Boon, also lauds the decision. "There
is a section of viewers in kids who don't have the power of discretion.
They find it's cool to imitate the actors."
(With
special inputs from HETAL ADESARA)
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