What's a masala Hindi film without a ciggie?

Mumbai, June 2 (IANS) Lounged on a rickety chair, Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan chews meditatively on a tiny beedi and rasps out killer one-liners, his aviator-style dark glasses in place as he plays the cynical cop in the latest houseful "Bunty Aur Babli" - and the audience promptly goes wild.

Could the Big B have done it without the help of the thin stream of smoke emanating after every word, would the rasp be as raspy without the aid of the beedi? Many say no.

But if a new government ban comes in place, all tobacco would disappear with a whiff of smoke from Hindi movies - making the grungy action flicks more health conscious but taking away much of the street-smart style, complain Bollywood buffs.

"Smoking adds to the style quotient in films," said Reema Khandeparkar, a self-confessed cops-and-robbers movies addict. "My recent h-u-g-e favourite is Sanjay Dutt in 'Musafir' - when he smokes that thick cigar and crunches it between his teeth - I'm like 'Oh, my god!'

"But I don't smoke, never have, never will. In fact, I don't even like the smell of tobacco in real life. In the films, it's about the character and sometimes a cigarette lolling on the lips can be very sexy," Reema adds.

Sex and the cigarette have been intrinsic part of Hindi cinema from the time the only people who smoked were the so-called vamps, the Indian version of the femme fatale of film noir.

In their slinky glitter cat suits, infamously louche lifestyle, the vamp characters gave Bollywood the edge at a time when all heroes were good boys and lead actresses virgin queens.

In southern India, Tamil superstar Rajnikanth has made flipping a cigarette into his mouth a trademark instantly recognised, loved and copied by millions.

Big B's legendary 'angry young man', often came with the customary cigarette that added to the machismo.

"To see Amitabh, strikingly tall and striding on to the screen, and strike a light was the ultimate thing for men at that time," said 55-year-old retail manager Umesh Nath, who said he and his friends used to try to emulate Bachchan when they were in their 20s.

"Some of my friends including me do smoke. But some don't. Are those smoking scenes responsible for some of us smoking? Not really. It was something cool to try out at one point but the decision to continue smoking was purely personal."

While that might be true, some who approve of the ban say seeing screen idols light up pushes many adolescents to try a fag.

The website SceneSmoking.org, which tracks tobacco use in films, says a Dartmouth study found that "non-smoking teens whose favourite stars smoke frequently on screen are 16 times more likely to develop positive attitudes towards smoking".

The American Lung Association of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails recruited 300 youth reviewers to review 440 Bollywood movies for tobacco content from the years of 1991-2002 to analyse the impact of smoking in Hindi cinema.

"The researchers found that tobacco portrayal is prevalent in 76 percent of the studied films. Cigarettes made up 72 percent of all incidents. Also, the occurrence of smoking among positive good guys elevated from 22 percent in 1991 to 53 percent in 2002," the website said, though tobacco use in Bollywood remains much less than Hollywood.

The website quotes film mogul Subhash Ghai as saying: "I remember that in my young age I was very influenced by (then star actor) Dev Anand's smoking. There was a perception that a person who smokes thinks better, is a better actor, better artiste."

Some go a step further and argue that even if stars smoke in their real life, they should never be seen with the poison stick on screen.

"Look at Shah Rukh Khan. He is almost never seen without a cigarette in real life but rarely ever smokes on screen," said shopkeeper Suresh Pai. "That's the way it should be."

But others like film CD and DVD library owner Mohan Rao insist that the silver screen needs a bit of smoke to light it up.

"The cloud of (tobacco) smoke gives a surreal feel to the shady villain and the troubled hero," said Rao. "You can't take away creative freedom."

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Bunty Aur Babli