Quit smoking on screen, Anbumani tells Dhanush

Chennai: PMK’s chief ministerial candidate and former Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss on Sunday appealed to Tamil actor Dhanush to emulate his father-in-law and Tamil superstar Rajinikanth to give up smoking on screen in the interest of youngsters’ health.

Expressing shock over Dhanush’s on-screen smoking in his recent Tamil movie Maari, he said it would have a serious adverse impact on his fan following, who were mostly youngsters. “Considering the welfare of TN youngsters, you must give up on-screen smoking and should also announce that you will refrain from doing it on screen now onwards,” he said in a letter to the actor which was released to the media.

Quoting from medical studies, he stressed that tobacco use was dangerous and said refraining from smoking on screen was good for his health. Citing studies and findings from renowned medical journal Lancet, and the World Health Organisation, he argued that on screen smoking by film personalities thrust smoking on the youth and it eventually led to a rise in smoking habit among them. He also referred to a Kerala High Court verdict and said smoking scenes in films were an indirect form of advertisement for tobacco use, which must be stopped.