The Study

India ratified the FCTC in 2004[i] and also enacted legislation called “Cigarette and other tobacco products Act 2003” which specifically called for an end to direct and indirect form of tobacco advertisements[ii]. Since the enactment of the legislation, the tobacco companies are prohibited from any kind of advertisement. We intend to find if they resorting to covert form of advertisement which included product placement in Indian movies. Such product placements and visibility of tobacco in movies creates a very high impact on the youngsters and children. Are myths about tobacco use being promoted through movies? This study also attempts to study the actual incidents of tobacco use in the Indian movies after 2003 and to have a snapshot view of the influence it creates on young peoples mind so as to understand the influence and actual impact of showing smoking images in movies on youngsters. 

There are two parts of the present study. In the first part we intended to study the usage of tobacco in Hindi movies released during the year 2004 and 2005. The second part of the study was questionnaire designed with an intention to understand the mindset and the popular perception. We interacted with over one thousand and one hundred youngsters and sought their reaction, opinion and recall on various aspects of tobacco usage in movies. 

Research Design

This research goes beyond evaluating only the popular and successful movies on the basis of the revenue collection or their success and failure by other parameters as the box office collection can not be a qualifying yardstick. Each movie is produced with an expectation of its being successful. So even if a movie is not a success by some yardstick still it will not lessen its role as an intended mass media vehicle. So it was decided to evaluate at least 100 of the available movies released during 2004, 2005. The availability of the movies in the video parlours and video libraries was set as a criterion to select the movies at random.

Each movie was evaluated on the basis of the impact created. Counting the number of smoking /tobacco scenes was found to be unnecessary as in many cases even a single scene can be of immense significance if it is filmed on a popular star depicting a positive and desirable emotion. The emotional impact of tobacco depiction is of much greater value than counting the smoking scenes. In many cases the number of scenes may be less but then there may be dialogues supporting tobacco. Movies were analyzed on the basis of the association created with emotions, use of positive statements and tobacco facilitating remarks in movies. The use of tobacco by lead character vis-à-vis others was also done. 

The movies were also evaluated on the basis of tobacco usage; smoking/tobacco use by the main protagonists and female characters; association of tobacco with glamour and stress; statements facilitating tobacco usage and belittling of tobacco warning. The usage of alcohol was also recorded. 

A total of hundred and ten Hindi movies were evaluated at random. Forty-eight of these were released in the year 2004 and sixty-two in the year 2005.

It is known that psychological needs satisfaction can be communicated without direct reference to cigarettes or smoking and is so subtle that it is difficult for audience to analyze it easily.[iii] To unearth the complex emotional desire triggered by such messages in the movies a self administered questioner having multiple options was developed. The first four questions were about the respondents profile and were optional. The last ten questions were valid only for respondent’s already consuming tobacco. Two questions required one word or a single line answer, depending on recall and could be left un-responded.  

The complete questionnaire was also put on the website of Burning Brain Society (www.burningbrain.org) and response sought. In the first week, fifty four people replied and their responses were used to validate and fine-tune the questionnaire. After evaluation of the response through the website, questions were re-serialised and some questions were rephrased. Some questions which were earlier in the questionnaire were dropped altogether from the rephrased questionnaire for not being of any importance.

The subjects on which opinion was sought included questions asking; 

1)      If the respondent could recall any tobacco brand seen in the movie? This was to see the impact or brand recall factor of any tobacco products which was visible in the movie. The respondents were also asked to name the movie/brand in the next question. 

2)      If the respondent ever felt a desire to smoke or just hold a cigarette in his hand? The next question asked if he/she had ever held any article like cigarette so as to emulate any film actor smoking. The answers to these questions provide the real cue of the influence movies cause on young minds and also of acceptability of tobacco in their lives. Those answering “Yes” to any of these three questions could be put in the high risk group.

3)      If the respondent felt that people follow movie stars in smoking? The answer to this question provides an indication about the impact of showing tobacco on his/or her mind projected through another person.

4)      If the respondents felt that by not showing tobacco in the movie the quality of the movie be affected in any way or it would affect his decision to watch the movie? The answer provides cue to the importance and seriousness a regular movie viewers attach to the expression of emotions, situations, etc. because of tobacco usage and how important they think it is to show tobacco in movies. The answer to this question is an indicator to the importance general public gives to tobacco in movies.

5)      There were questions to know whether they had ever consumed tobacco or any of the family members consume tobacco? Those who answered in affirmation about their using tobacco, they were asked to answer another ten questions asking about the quantity of tobacco they smoked and if they had ever lighted a cigarette in the style of any film actor. They were also asked about if they thought that movies influenced their smoking initiation.

The answers to these questions give a reasonable idea about the influence and impression created on a lay persons mind. The evaluated responses provide an indicator about the role of mass media images in influencing youngsters to have a favourable image of tobacco which pushes them towards the actual consumption of tobacco. 

There were a total of 1126 respondents. The questionnaires were self administered in presence of a neutral facilitator (a volunteer for all physical collection of the questionnaire) of the same age group and socio-economical background. The collection of the questionnaire was done on-the-spot. Survey was also made available through internet. Only one response per IP address was acceptable and was screened for geographical location based on the IP address of the respondents. Incomplete questionnaires or more than one received from the same IP address were discarded (58 responses discarded). Only the first completely filled form received from any IP address based in India was accepted. Out of a total of 1126 respondents, 204 valid responses were collected through Internet and 922 collected physically. The mean age of the respondents was 16.7 years with a mode of 17, having a range of 16 from 11 to 27. Most of the respondents were from urban or rural schools and colleges based in Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana & Punjab and admitted regularly viewing television and motion movies.