Guzaarish sailing in troubled waters

Mumbai's med community to rap ciggie-toting Aishwarya Bachchan on the knuckles metaphorically by sporting black badges on the day of Guzaarish's release

The Aishwarya Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan starrer, Guzaarish, is sailing in troubled waters even before its release. The medical community is up in arms against posters of the film showing the lead actress holding a cigarette. Doctors think it is sending a wrong message to the youth on smoking.

Apart from the movie producers, medicos are upset with BEST, which is a government entity, for allowing such posters to be displayed on their vehicles. "We are going to write a letter to BEST and request the filmmakers to remove these posters immediately. Aishwarya Bachchan is a renowned actress and seeing her holding a cigarette may influence many young minds," said oncologist, Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi from the Tata Memorial Hospital.

As a mark of protest, Doctors for You (DFY), a not-for-profit organisation, has decided to wear black badges on Guzaarish's release date, which is scheduled for November 19. It was in 2005 that on-screen smoking was banned by then Union Minister for Health, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, but the ban was revoked in 2009.

Dr PC Gupta from the Healis Sekhasaria Institute of Public Health, said, "This is a clear-cut promotion of smoking and we will send a letter to Aishwarya requesting her not to use this particular scene for promotion."

Not long ago Aishwarya's father-in-law, Amitabh Bachchan, found himself in advertising trouble after the NGO, National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE), filed a case against him for allegedly smoking a cigar in an advertisement.

Even after repeated calls and text messages to producer Ronnie Screwvala, he was unavailable for comment.