Actor Vijay is courting trouble at the moment. In the first-look poster of his upcoming movie, Sarkar, Vijay, is seen posing with a cigarette in his mouth. The Health and Family Welfare Department sent a legal intimation notice to the actor, director AR Murugadoss and producer Sun Pictures for violating the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, on Wednesday.
The film’s posters and teaser were released last month. Vijay and the makers of the movie drew criticism from anti-tobacco campaigners. Dr K Kolandaswamy, director of public health said, “We sent legal intimation notice to them under Section 5, 9(2) and 22 of COPTA, 2003. We warned them to comply with the Act as they have promoted the teaser on YouTube and other social media platforms.
If they don’t comply with the rules we will send a legal notice. If they don’t respond to that, we will file a case.”
On Friday, the Tamil Nadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control, welcomed the action. “We appreciate the move by the Directorate of Public Health to confront the violation. The committee needs to set an example by taking action against the violators, so that the movie industry will uphold the tobacco control laws,” said S Cyril Alexander, state convener, TNPFTC.
Anbumani Ramadoss’ tweet
“Shame on actor Vijay for promoting smoking in his first look of his next movie” — with hashtags #ActResponsibly #DoNotPromoteSmoking.