Odisha: Senior Health Official Urges Bollywood Actors to Refrain from Endorsing Gutkha

Bhubaneswar: Every year May 31 is observed as World No-Tobacco Day to raise awareness on the ill-effects of consuming tobacco products.

On the occasion, a senior health official of Odisha Health and Family Welfare Department has urged the Bollywood actors to refrain from endorsing the tobacco products.

Dr Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Special Secretary (Public Health) has expressed his concerns that the leading Bollywood stars are advertising gutkha.

“Why are Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar advertising Gutkha? Taking you as their idols, some people are also eating gutkha”, he said while appealing the celebrities to refrain from such advertising.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday notified new rules mandating OTT platforms to carry anti-tobacco warning messages in the online curated audio-visual content.

The rules are called the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Amendment Rules, 2023.

The notification has been issued on the World No Tobacco Day.