Director and lead performer of 'Hawa' served legal notice for 'breaching tobacco control law'

A Supreme Court lawyer Saturday sent a legal notice to the creators and lead performer of the film 'Hawa', including director Mejbaur Rahman Sumon and protagonist Chanchal Chowdhury, for "violating tobacco control law."

The film did not show anti-tobacco messages while showcasing smoking as per the rules, Lawyer Jewel Sarkar said in his legal notice.

He sent the notice to the film's director, producer, lead character and chairman of the Censor Board.

Jewel said, "Even though the producer and director of the movie were warned verbally for several days, they did not add anti-tobacco messages in the movie as per the law."

According to the Smoking and Usage of Tobacco Products (Control) Acts 2005, if the story of a movie requires displaying any scene containing the usage of tobacco products, it can be shown by displaying a written warning about the harmful effects of using tobacco products.

A health warning message, "Smoking or consuming tobacco causes death," will have to be displayed in the middle of the screen, covering at least one-fifth of the screen, in white letters against a black background, in Bangla.

Also, such health warnings will have to be displayed continuously as long as the scene runs, according to the Act.

In case of a movie showing in a cinema halls which has a scene of usage of tobacco products, a health warning message "Smoking or consuming tobacco causes death" will have to be displayed in full screen for at least 20 seconds in Bangla before the start of the movie, before and after the break, and after the ending, the Act says.

A gross violation of law was seen in Hawa, where unnecessary smoking scenes were used without any health warning about the dangers of smoking, the notice said.

However, Sumon said: "The issues mentioned here were baseless; those who have watched the movie know it very well."