Dr. Vijay Anand Reddy, Cancer specialists & Director, Apollo Cancer Hospital, representing ‘Voice of tobacco victims in the state of Andhra Pradesh’ and Medical Students staged a Gandhian protest at Cinemax Theatre & Prabhas residence on Tuesday against ‘REBEL’ movie & its Hero Prabhas, for openly promoting cigarette smoking as seen in the movie posters and exhibits, which is against the COTPA (Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products Act). They handed over a memo to Mr Satyanarayana Raju, uncle of Prabhas (as Prabhas was not at home) and through him requested
Prabhas to desist from promoting smoking, A copy of the memo was handed over to the Cinemax Theatre authorities.
Speaking on the occassion Dr. Vijay Anand Reddy said "Cinema stars are one of the major role models for youth. We urge them to feel responsible and not showcase cigarette smoking as cool or heroic."
The memo submitted is as follows:
BE COOL, DONT BE A SMOKING FOOL.
Smoking has been a subject much talked about but very little action is taken to stop it. Although Govt. of India has COTPA act and has banned public smoking and advertising, we still find the menace growing by leaps and bounds. According to statistics from WHO, Role Models including Cine Stars play a major role in initiating smoking. We the medical students of Hyderabad deeply condemn this anti-social actions.
On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi we are taking forward his leagacy and dream of Smoke –Alcohol free India. We are initiating an Anti-Smoking protest in out most nonviolent method following the footsteps of Father of our Nation. We request Cine actors Associations, Theatre managements and the Censor board not to entertain any kind of smoking on screen or on advertisement. In the name of creativity we are been channelized to immoral actions deteriorating our health and wealth.
SMOKER IS NOT A HERO – He is a ZERO!
On behalf of ‘Voice of Tobacco Victims in Andhra Pradesh’ and ‘Indian Medical Students Association’ we request you to join our hands in creating a SMOKE FREE society.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Vijay Anand Reddy, Voice of Tobacco Victims in AP’
Aleem Mohammad, ‘Indian Medical Students Association’
