Tobacco use sees dip in Bollywood films: study

Number of scenes per film began to decline by 30% per year since Oct. 2012

Tobacco-free Films and TV Rules (2012) has reduced tobacco depictions in Bollywood films, as per a new study released by HRIDAY, a Delhi-based NGO, which studied tobacco incidents in top-grossing Bollywood films between 2006 and 2017. “The number of tobacco incidents per film was increasing by about 10% per year [incidence rate ratio of 1.1 per year] before the rules took effect in October 2012. However, post-implementation of the rules, the number of tobacco incidents per film began to decline significantly by about 30% per year,” said Gaurang P. Nazar, one of the authors of the study.