While running the old films with smoking and tobacco scenes – like the iconic Marlon Brando, Dev Anand or the Jai-Viru pair and Gabbar Singh in Sholay – the owner/manager of cinema hall has to show an anti-tobacco health spot or thirty seconds messages at the beginning and middle of the film.
Similar restrictions apply for broadcasters while showing old films. The Union Health Ministry on Friday released notifications to the effect, which would come into force from November 14. The notification was prepared in consultation with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. The Central Board of Film Certification would monitor tobacco scenes in movies and TV programmes, which would receive U/A certificate if there are smoking scenes.
In films or TV programmes where smoking scenes are editorially justified, the actor who puffed on the screen has to be featured in a separate spot in which he or she will speak about ill-effects of tobacco. The disclaimer would be 20 seconds long and has to be shown in the beginning or middle of the film.|
When a tobacco scene comes, a prominent anti-tobacco display with a warning has to be scrolled at the bottom of the screen.
Tobacco products, posters and promotional material will have to be edited out in new films while those scenes would have to be blurred or masked whenever they are shown in TV and theatres. TV commercials with tobacco scenes will be aired only in those slots in which under-18 viewership is the least.
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