Withdraw cigar smoking pics from Sarkar, TN health department tells Vijay, A R Murugadoss

The Tamil Nadu Health Department has served notices to actor Vijay and director A R Murugadoss, asking them to withdraw a poster from their upcoming film Sarkar as it shows Vijay smoking a cigar.

The notice says that the poster must be removed from all websites and social media networks with immediate effect. Failure to do so would result in legal action being initiated against them, the notice from the Health Department said.

Pointing out that the government was taking proactive stept to discourage smoking among the masses, the notice said those from the film industry must extend co operation to such moves by the government.

It may be recalled that the Sarkar team had released the first look poster of the film Sarkar on June 22 to mark the birthday of actor Vijay. In the poster, Vijay was seen smoking a cigar and almost immediately, a particular segment of the audience expressed disappointment as they felt that Vijay had gone back on his word of not having any smoking scenes in his films.

The posters also evoked a sharp response from former Union minister of health and family welfare Anbumani Ramadoss who tweeted, “Shame on Actor Vijay for promoting Smoking in this first look of his next movie. #ActResponsibly #DoNotPromoteSmoking You’ll look more stylish without that cigarette.”

As if this wasn’t enough, a police complaint too was filed against the actor and director.

The complaint, which was filed by a lawyer, said that the first look poster of Sarkar could induce or motivate lakhs of the actor’s fans and followers to do the same and therefore urged the removal of such scenes from the film.