BOLLYWOOD VS. TOBACCO: ROUND 2

Bollywood's ban on smoking in movies kicks it up a notch and takes it to the next level, BAM! Brace yourselves for AMARJEET, the anti-big-tobacco thriller starring Bollywood also-ran and Miss Universe winner, Lara Dutta. It's being directed by commercial and music video director Shoojit Sircar and his big headache is that since smoking is banned effective October 2 he can't show it in his anti-smoking, ERIN BROKOVICH-styled thriller. He's asking for a special consideration so he can show poor role models huffing on cancer sticks in his flick.

As Dutta says, "This film is not about sermons. This is a commercial film with a social message. It is a story of a woman from a small town in Punjab who takes on the mighty tobacco industry. She does not have the experience to deal with such a big step, and her movement snowballs into a huge movement."  Which is very special since the anti-smoking movement in Bollywood is not a grassroots movement but the brainchild of the Union Health Ministry that has been widely criticized.

AMARJEET is slated for January 2006.