Amala Paul’s social media post reads, “Every star has an iconic smoking shot, and here’s mine.” The post has a photo of her holding a cigarette in one hand. She says she isn’t advocating smoking in any way, and is merely ‘living her Hollywood fan girl dreams.’
Comments for the post began at ‘smoking causes cancer’ and stretched to ‘but this shot is fabulous’, with some taking a middle ground. A few comments took the trouble to explain the effect on viewers’ psyche when actors pose with tobacco and alcohol. Some others came up with a counter for this.
Debates like this on social media are common, but what has been unusual is the increase in controversy whenever an actor puts up a picture or poster showing them using tobacco or alcohol, whether or not for a film’s promotional purpose.
While Amala Paul’s photo, which she put up for personal reasons, hasn’t yet to make any buzz for the wrong reasons; Hansika’s film Maha was taken to court for showing her smoking in the first-look poster. She was seen in saffron clothes, and there were sadhus in the background. Following this poster release, a case was filed against her and the director for hurting religious sentiments.
Other actors like Vishal and Vijay have faced similar backlash too. Vishal’s Ayogya made news when he was seen holding a beer bottle in the film’s first look poster.
Politician and founder of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Dr S Ramadoss, tweeted asking Vishal to withdraw the first-look poster immediately.
He said, “What is the actor trying to tell his fans through this poster? I expect some social responsibility from the Secretary of Nadigar Sangam. I had written to him about banning scenes that show smoking, but now, I see him holding beer bottles.”
But Vishal responded to this saying he was merely holding the beer bottle and not drinking from it. The bottle was a piece of evidence in one of the cases he was handling in the film, he said.
Vijay’s Sarkar was also controversial when one of its posters showed the actor smoking. Following a notice from Tamil Nadu’s Health Department, the makers had the posters removed. Here too Ramadoss made this an issue. In a Hindu report he said, “Shame on Actor Vijay for promoting smoking in this first look of his next movie.”
Before Sarkar, Vijay’s previous film with director AR Murugadoss was controversial for the same reason. Thuppakki‘s poster showed the actor smoking a cigar.
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