Tobacco.org

'Nothing's more alluring than Katrina lighting your beedi'  

If you watch Katrina Kaif's [ Images ] item song Chikni Chameli [ Images ] in Agneepath, you will see a statutory warning scrolling at the bottom of the screen every time she sings, 'Beedi chillum jalaane ayee,' claiming cigarette smoking is injurious to health.

But there is no reason for the film industry to go into panic mode.

As Pankaja Thakur, CEO of the Censor Board Of Film Certification (CBFC), says it doesn't mean every sequence showing a character smoking would be required to run a warning scroll.

"Not at all!" exclaims Thakur emphatically. "The intention of the scroll is being misinterepreted by a section of the film imdustry. An actor smoking on screen is a different matter from an actress saying, Beedi chillum jalaane aayee. We did ask for the scroll in Agneepath. As per the cinematograph act, glamorisation of smoking is not to be allowed on screen. We in the Censor Board thought nothing can make smoking more alluring than Katrina Kaif offering to light the crowd's beedis and chillums."

Jump to full article »

Viggo: I had to chain-smoke cigars  

Viggo Mortensen has admitted he had to get used to chain-smoking cigars on the set of A Dangerous Method.

The Lord Of The Rings star appears opposite Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley in David Cronenberg's new film about the friendship between Sigmund Freud and fellow psychologist Carl Jung, in which he plays cigar lover Freud.

Viggo revealed: "I enjoyed it after a while. I had good memories from childhood of grandfather smoking a lot of cigars, so I didn't mind the way they smelled and everything.

"But it took a while to get used to smoking that many a day. He smoked 20, 22 big cigars a day. In photographs of Freud, you almost never see him without a cigar, in hand, in his mouth, even when he's with kids, social situations and family situations. Certainly always when he was reading or writing or lecturing, so I had to do it.

"It took a little getting used to, I was a little dizzy the first couple of days, but then it became fun."

Jump to full article »

• Discourage glamorisation of smoking: CEO, Censor Board  

If you stare hard enough at the screen during Katrina Kaif's item song in 'Agneepath', you will see a statutory warning flashed at the bottom of the screen. But there is no reason for the film industry to go into a panic mode, says Pankaja Thakur, CEO of the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC), adding that they just try to discourage glamorisation of smoking on screen.

Contray to the widespread concern in the entertainment industry, the board doesn't intend to ask for a warning scroll every time a character on screen takes a smoke.

"As long as lyrics like 'Bidi chillum jalaane aayee', offering smoking temptations, are not prevalent, the scroll in 'Agneepath' would be a one-off thing. As long as an actor doesn't urge the world to join in the bidi- chillum smoke, the scroll in 'Agneepath' would remain a one-off thing. Glamorization of smoking is to be discouraged as per the guidelines of the Cinematograph Act," said Thakur.

He also says that the filmmakers shouldn't get panicky.

"Not at all!"

Jump to full article »

Film-makers fume over anti-smoking diktat 

The decision of the censor board to ask the producers of Agneepath to run an anti-smoking scroll for the Chikni Chameli song has not gone down well with the industry. Many feel it is curbing their creative freedom and the producers' body is planning to write to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) objecting to the new decision.

Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures said, "Producers will have to abide by the law of the land. However, it curbs creative freedom significantly and distracts the flow if one has to include anti-smoking scrolls in a movie."

He added, "The authorities should reconsider their decision and ask for all such messages to be included at the start of the film." The Association of Motion Pictures and Television Programme Producers (AMPTPP) is also not too happy.

Jump to full article »

'Discourage glamorisation of smoking'  

If you stare hard enough at the screen during Katrina Kaif's item song in "Agneepath", you will see a statutory warning flashed at the bottom of the screen. But there is no reason for the film industry to go into a panic mode, says Pankaja Thakur, CEO of the Central Board Of Film Certification (CBFC), adding that they just try to discourage glamorisation of smoking on screen.

Contray to the widespread concern in the entertainment industry, the board doesn't intend to ask for a warning scroll every time a character on screen takes a smoke.

"As long as lyrics like 'Bidi chillum jalaane aayee', offering smoking temptations, are not prevalent, the scroll in 'Agneepath' would be a one-off thing. As long as an actor doesn't urge the world to join in the bidi- chillum smoke, the scroll in 'Agneepath' would remain a one-off thing. Glamorization of smoking is to be discouraged as per the guidelines of the Cinematograph Act," said Thakur.

He also says that the filmmakers shouldn't get panicky.

Jump to full article »

• 'Agneepath' first film to run anti-smoking scroll  

Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) CEO Pankaja Thakur said, "Films that encourage smoking or alcohol consumption will have to run a scroll or accept cuts to get a certificate."

Hrithik Rishan-Sanjay Dutt starrer 'Agneepath', released on January 26, has included a statutory warning scroll in the popular item number chikni chameli to evade cuts. The film also runs warnings before and during the film, and has been given a U/A certificate.

The move comes at the back of a clash between the ministries of health and I&B. While the health ministry had issued a notification asking for slew of changes in films, the I&B ministry had held the ban in abeyance citing concerns from filmmakers. However, CBFC is implementing the ban partially.

Elaborating on the decision Thakur said, "For the first time, CBFC has asked for a statutory warning scroll in a popular item song. The producers (of Agneepath) offered no resistance." The particular number has actor Katrina Kaif lighting up bidis, which the Board felt would send a wrong message.

However, instead of forcing the ban, the Board feels that discussion on balancing artistic expression with health concerns has had a better effect. With the Censor turning an eagle eye on films, sources said that filmmakers will be cautious in filming smoking scenes.

Jump to full article »

• Film-makers fume over anti-smoking diktat 

The decision of the censor board to ask the producers of Agneepath to run an anti-smoking scroll for the Chikni Chameli song has not gone down well with the industry. Many feel it is curbing their creative freedom and the producers' body is planning to write to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) objecting to the new decision.

Siddharth Roy Kapur of UTV Motion Pictures said, "Producers will have to abide by the law of the land. However, it curbs creative freedom significantly and distracts the flow if one has to include anti-smoking scrolls in a movie."

He added, "The authorities should reconsider their decision and ask for all such messages to be included at the start of the film." The Association of Motion Pictures and Television Programme Producers (AMPTPP) is also not too happy.

"We will write to the CBFC demanding that such harsh rules should not be implemented. If the protagonist is a smoker then one can't be running a scroll each time he lights up on screen," AMPTPP president Ratan Jain said.

Jump to full article »

• Smoking: Marilyn star Michelle Williams likes it not 

Michelle Williams refused to smoke in every scene when filming My Week With Marilyn, fearing it would set a bad example to her daughter.

The 31-year-old Oscar-nominated star bleached her hair and piled on the pounds to play Marilyn Monroe. But she didn't want Matilda, six, her daughter by late Dark Knight star Heath Ledger, to see her puffing on cigarettes.

'Michelle smoked as little as she could even though Marilyn smoked a lot,' says a movie mole.

'Michelle used to smoke but is now fiercely against it and didn't want to set a bad example to her daughter. It upset her when Heath was alive that he chain-smoked and she is obsessed with avoiding any bad habits that could affect Matilda.'

Jump to full article »

Blowing the whistle on Big Tobacco 

This dilatory documentary, Addiction Incorporated, chronicles the battle against Big Tobacco, an industry that just a couple of decades ago was considered invincible.

The film's Galahad is Victor DeNoble, who was recruited from academia by Philip Morris for drug research. His mandate was to use lab rats to find a nicotine replacement that was just as addictive, but less damaging to the human heart.

Jump to full article »

Addiction Incorporated: The Other Insider / Opens January 20 at the Shattuck Cinemas. 

In the 1999 movie, The Insider, Russell Crowe starred as Jeff Wigand, a former tobacco industry researcher for Brown & Williams, who dares to reveal the dangers of nicotine to Berkeley-based 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman.

This week, Berkeley-grad Charles Evans Jr.,'s Addiction Incorporated hits the Big Screen to tell a parallel story of Philip Morris researcher Victor DeNoble, the whistleblower whose revelations triggered the Congressional hearings and class action lawsuits that forever tarred the reputation of Big Tobacco.

Addiction Incorporated is a prodigious historical documentary bursting with brilliant interviews with key players from every level of the scientific-media-political-corporate playing field.

Jump to full article »

Ne-Yo So Sick Of Fake Tobacco  

Singer/songwriter Ne-YO is still trying to get the awful taste of prop licorice out of his mouth after chewing it like tobacco for his role in new war movie Red Tails.

The So Sick singer star was offered real tobacco or the thick black stand-in - and he regrets choosing the latter.

He explains, "It was this disgusting black licorice that I can honestly still taste now two years after we finished the movie.

Jump to full article »

Little-known actress Rooney Mara is about to be famous  

David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo -- the first installment in the U.S. version of Stieg Larsson's mega-selling "Millennium Trilogy" -- opens in theaters today. And there Rooney Mara will be, pale, pierced and punked-out . . .

"Everything was challenging. . . .

"I think it took us three days to do that. ... You don't really think about it, but even when he grabs the bag from me, you do that over three days and it starts to hurt. That scene was physically exhausting, especially after smoking for a year."

That's right, Lisbeth smokes, Mara doesn't. And Lisbeth has eyebrow pierces, and lip pierces and nipple pierces.

Jump to full article »

'Addiction Incorporated' Looks At Big Tobacco's Efforts To Suppress Info On Cigarettes 

Despite omnipresent health warnings, an estimated 46 million Americans continue to smoke, with many claiming that they just can’t quit. So why it is so hard to kick the deadly habit?

“Addiction Incorporated,” the new documentary by Charles Evans Jr., attempts to answer that question, showing how the tobacco industry sought to deceive the American public for so many years. The film tells the story of scientist Victor DeNoble’s unexpected discovery of an addictive ingredient in tobacco which led to the first ever federal regulation of the tobacco industry in the 1990s. . . .

In response to the film, a rep for Philip Morris USA said that the company agrees with the overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking is addictive and causes serious diseases in smokers.

“Philip Morris stood alone among the major cigarette manufacturers in support of FDA regulation over cigarettes and believes that this regulation can provide significant benefits to tobacco manufacturers and adult tobacco consumers,” a company rep said.

Yet according to DeNoble, the battle has only really just begun, and he is pushing for further regulation.

“Someday they could produce a cigarette that only produces a little nicotine. That would mean that if young people experimented, it wouldn’t necessarily lead to a lifelong addition. But the tobacco isn’t going to lie down to this.

Jump to full article »

Let's go to the movies  

Now playing in Pattaya

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: US/ Sweden/ UK/ Germany, Crime/ Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller – I am quite fond of the stunning Swedish original, so was skeptical of this English remake. And the film started out terribly for me . . .

Then the film starts out like a strung-out product placement or advertisement for a certain specific brand of American cigarettes, which I didn’t appreciate.

Jump to full article »

Sanjay-Salman's smoking zone at Bigg Boss! 

Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt had an amazing time on the sets of Bigg Boss season 5. Sanjay would borrow his counterpart's favourite brand of cigarettes, which really impressed him too.

According to the sources, the time at Karjat during Bigg Boss season five, made Sanju and Salman more friendly, especially during the last two days which eventually culminated to finale evening. The duo initially exchanged their respective brand of smoke sticks and eventually, both settled for Salman's brand.

Jump to full article »