Bollywood challenges law requiring pop-up warnings when actors light-up
India’s film industry has reacted angrily to moves by the Indian government that obligates producers to insert a pop-up warning whenever a character lights up on screen.
Producers of next month’s blockbuster Heroine, one of the first films to fall foul of the new rules, are seeking a court order to allow them to evade the requirement to splice their work with 20 second health warnings flashing in the middle of the screen.
They argue that the onerous restrictions are ‘killing creativity’ and complain that the burden of airing anti-smoking messages from actors seen puffing during trailers and intervals is too great.
Denying that smoking scenes were used gratuitously veteran director Harry Baweja said: “We support the anti-smoking message in the beginning and at the end of the film but a text or video message in the middle of the drama will be a distraction for the viewers. It will break the reality element in our films.
“Such diktats by the government will be seen as an infringement of our right to freedom of expression.”