India loosens ban on smoking in movies

ICONIC FIGURES CAN BE SHOWN
SMOKING; HEALTH MINISTRY NODS

New Delhi, Oct. 20 — (IANS) India’s multibillion rupee film industry, which has been fuming over a ban on smoking scenes in films, now has reason to smile. The health ministry is ready to allow the depiction of iconic characters with their favourite poison stick.

So British statesman Winston Churchill and fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, who cannot be imagined without their cigars and pipes, can now be shown smoking in new films — though with a warning.

“Characters like Churchill and Sherlock Holmes can smoke on screen. People know about them and their on-screen smoking won’t influence the audience behaviour much,” a senior health ministry official told IANS.

“This will be made public next month,” the official added.

The health ministry had banned smoking in films but director Mahesh Bhatt moved court against the government decision. The case has been pending in the Delhi High Court for the last two years. The Delhi High Court is going to hear the case in the third week of November.

Earlier, the ministry was completely against any smoking scenes in any movie. It had said all old movies with such scenes would have to be accompanied with a note saying the habit is injurious to health, and new films with such depictions could not be made at all.

Warning: HULK contains tobacco images!

I’m told that trailers for The Incredible Hulk, which opens Friday, include the warning “Contains depictions of tobacco consumption.” I hadn’t noticed. But I have noticed that smoking is so rare in movies these days that when it does occur, it’s almost startling.

I’m wondering, though, who’ll do most of the politically incorrect smoking in the Hulk film. My guess: Samuel L. Jackson as the traditionally cigar-chomping Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, whose post-credits cameo in Iron Man was, as I recall, free of the beloved stogie.

Yes, it's elementary!

[Cross-posted at The Sudden Curve]

For more than 20 years, I’ve had this vintage, full-page, 1946 magazine advertisement for Chesterfield Cigarettes framed and hanging on a wall in my home office. Since I’m a hardcore Sherlockian, my original motive in buying it at an antique show was, well, it’s friggin’ Basil Rathbone fer crissakes, and the ad even refers to Universal Pictures’ then-new Sherlock Holmes movie, Dressed to Kill. But as the years have passed, and smoking becomes more and more “forbidden,” the advertisement’s taken on a special glamour that really appeals to me. I love it. And no, it’s not for sale.