Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta raised an objection to Bollywood continuously showing its leading men smoking in posters.
On Sunday, Sanjay took to his official X handle (Formerly known as Twitter) and dropped a collage of posters of Ranbir Kapoor from Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’, Ranveer Singh from Aditya Dhar’s ‘Dhurandhar, and Vicky Kaushal from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Love & War. The one thing in common in all three images was that the three actors were shown with a cigarette.
Sanjay questioned the impact of the anti-smoking messages the audience is shown in theatres before and during films, while such posters continue to promote smoking.
What is the point of those unpleasant anti smoking reels we have to endure before and during films when these are the posters of the films? pic.twitter.com/oQSkEWkTZl
— Sanjay Gupta (@_SanjayGupta) September 27, 2026
He wrote on the micro-blogging site, “What is the point of those unpleasant anti-smoking reels we have to endure before and during films when these are the posters of the films? (sic)”.
Sanjay’s post soon led to a debate in the comment section. One of the X users reminded the director of his own 2002 release, ‘Kaante’. To refresh your memory, actor Sanjay Dutt is seen smoking during one of the songs of the crime thriller.
“Suprised that this is coming from the director of the movie Kaante which has a song which says ‘ciggrate ke dhuan ka challa banake, collar ko thodasa upar chada ke’…what an irony,” read the comment.
Responding to the comment, Sanjay said that the rules and public messaging regarding smoking were different back then. “There were no non smoking ads then you genius,” he replied.
A netizen even talked about how Indian society associates smoking with masculinity. “Because these people think that cigarette is the only thing that shows a man masculine. This is the lack of creativity. All Indian film industries are suffering from ‘masculinity sycophancy’. Bhaad mai gaya content, story aur creativity,” he wrote.
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