Of late, the anti-smoking and drinking advisory prior to movie titles has become ubiquitous despite scenes of heroes puffing away to glory visible in almost every movie. But, does it have any impact on the viewer or actors playing the part? That is real question to be answered.
Tinseltown stars puff away to glory blaming it on stress. Among the B-Town celebrities, Shahrukh Khan is known for his addiction to the stick. Stars like Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Irfan Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Ranbir Kapoor too are known to be heavy smokers.
While a lot of celebrities, including a few heroines are wanting to kick the bad habit for good, some do find it very hard to quit smoking. We also have stars like John Abraham who never liked puffing as he always promoted healthy living. Fardeen Khan who used to be a chain smoker called it a day to lead a healthy life.
If we recall, Superstar Rajinikanth who was a chain smoker throughout his life recently quit smoking after he was hospitalised and was advised to kick the butt. In fact when Rajinikanth and Shatrughan Sinha were in Bangalore on the occasion of Ambarish's 60th birthday urged the rebel star to quit smoking.
"Ambarish is aware that smoking is injurious to health. But he is not really making any effort to quit," said Rajini while Shatrughan Singh also requested Ambarish to quit smoking and lead a healthy life. We are not aware whether Ambarish has made an attempt to quit smoking but here's hoping that he has definitely reduced the number of cigarettes smoked on a regular basis.
Sandalwood stars like Shivarajkumar, Duniya Vijay, Darshan and many other actors are trying to do their best to quit smoking but they are just not able to keep away from the habit. Even directors like Yograj Bhat and Suri are attempting to drop their smokes.
It was quite heartening to learn that Sudeep who was a chain smoker has quit smoking just a couple of days ago. Apparently, the reason behind the actor keeping away from the puff is his younger daughter Sanvi, who objected her father from smoking.
Sudeep in his tweet said, 'Need of stamina ws a priority n so followd quittin of smokin. Need to focus on energy levels as I need it in plenty fr my upcomin flms to ccl (sic)'.
The actor is currently shooting for Kannada film, Bachchan has made sure he will not go anywhere near the cigarette packs. As told by Shashank, initially, he did find it difficult to keep away from cigarettes but was determined to quit smoking only for his daughter.
According to Duniya Vijay, every achiever has a weakness. "Some smoke, some drink. There will always be an evil story behind every successful person. To be very honest, smoking has become immune to my body and it is something which feeds my brain. However, it is definitely a wrong assumption that celebrities smoke a lot. If I can put it in another way, I would say, if fate could have given us what ever we asked for, probably cigarettes wouldn't have existed. Today smoking has become a necessity for all. We have to blame the person who invented cigarettes. But I only urge the youth not to make it a habit. We have got used to it now and are finding it difficult to quit but I don't want my fans to get into smoking as once you start, you don't feel like quitting," he opined.
They are stars who are trying to take strong decisions to quit smoking. Recently, it was reported that director Yograj Bhat had even been to Dharmasthala's Ayurvedic Hostpital to quit the bad habit but is still not been able give up completely.
On the other hand, actor Yogi is more than happy to kick the butt. "I quit smoking three months ago as I felt it was a bad habit. I am just in my 20s and I want to lead a healthy life. If I aim to achieve a lot in my career, I can't be struggling to climb a two storey building. Instead of smoking, I felt that I would rather spend the same five minutes with my loved ones which gives me much more happiness," he said.