MUMBAI: The much-awaited remake of the 70s – Don – The Chase has touched a wrong chord with the Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. The minister has expressed his anger against Shah Rukh Khan for allegedly glamourising smoking in this film.
However, director Farhan Akhtar is also upset with those who have been making their own interpretations about the smoking scenes in the film. He says, “We began shooting the movie before the health minister had issued a notification banning smoking in film.”
The notification had also stated that if the actor did have a smoking scene in the movie, he would have to shoot a small audio-visual segment warning people that smoking is injurious to health. This would then be used as a disclaimer prior to the screening of the film.
Producer Ritesh Sidhwani defends the film saying, “We haven’t violated any laws and the promos of the movie were certified by the Censorship Board before we aired them.”
The Information and Broadcasting ministry has drafted an affidavit to be filed in the court in reply to Mahesh Bhatt’s PIL challenging the proposed ban on smoking in films. The ministry consulted the health ministry and agreed to not ban smoking scenes in films but to issue an adult certificate to movies that had such scenes.
Don is slated to release on 20 October. The film has Shah Rukh Khan in a double role alongside Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra.
