Admitting to differences with the health ministry on the proposed smoking ban in films, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry Friday said the two ministries need to reconcile to a common view on this crucial issue.
"Obviously there are differences (on the issue). Everyone has a different perspective. If there are two different perspectives, the two ministries have to sit together and thrash out the issues and take a common view," Information and Broadcasting Ministry Secretary S K Arora said in New Delhi.
"The final say is when there is a combined reconciled stand and we hope that it will come soon," Arora said on the sidelines of the Public Relation Society of India meet.
"The final arbitrator is the court", he said in an obvious reference to the public interest litigation filed by film producer Mahesh Bhatt in the Delhi high court against the proposed smoking ban in films.
I&B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi has already stated that while all measures needed to be taken to discourage smoking, content of a character (in any artistic venture) cannot be dictated or interfered with.
Last month, the health ministry issued a notification on the smoking ban on screen while announcing some exemptions.
The fresh notification allows showing smoking scenes during live telecasts, old movies and films made on the historical characters.
The I&B Ministry feels that such a ban would come in the way of artistic freedom "How can Devdas be depicted without a smoke and how can Winston Churchill be portrayed without his cigar", said an I&B official.
Dasmunshi's stand is at variance with that of Health Minister A Ramdoss who has strongly pitched for ban on smoking on screen about which government had issued a notification in May 2004.
The move had been hailed by anti-tobacco campaigners as a 'sensible step', but was attacked by film-makers as a curb on artistic freedom.
The Union health ministry had defended the controversial notification and had told the Delhi high court last month hearing a petition challenging the move that it was willing to provide certain "exemptions", including allowing use of tobacco by actors depicting historical personalities.
The ban on smoking on-screen is a part of the anti-tobacco rules, which are being implemented by the government in phases.
While the ban was to be implemented from August, 2005, it has been deferred twice on the request of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the film industry.
According to the present deadline, the ban is to be implemented from January, 2006.
The exemptions have been allowed after several rounds of discussions between the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the health ministry. A case filed by director Mahesh Bhatt is also pending in the Delhi high court.
