For a long time, Anbumani has been campaigning against the evils of tobacco. His contention is, if actors stopped smoking on screen, this would reduce tobacco related diseases among the public by almost half.
When he requested Rajini to stop smoking on screen, the superstar obliged and did not in his last 2 films. Vijay also agreed to the request and resolved not to do any more smoking scenes.
Going by the success of his request in Tamilnadu, Anbumani made the same request of Bollywood stars Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan. For Shahrukh, the cigarette is like a sixth finger. In fact, he said if India bans Pepsi, he would go to US and have it. How would he accept this request from the minister.
"What the minister says is true, but smoking in cinema is the freedom of the creator," said Shahrukh, declining the minister's request in a shot.
For fear of the film boxes being waylaid, our stars could kowtow to the minister's requests. But how would this go down with actors from other states?
