Kounteya Sinha,TNN
New Delhi, Apr 30: Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's rendition of a drunken junior artist delivering the dialogue, "Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost ", or his portrayal of Devdas , has not gone down well with Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
After asking actors to quit smoking on screen, the minister has once again taken on Bollywood, but this time over alcohol.
According to Ramadoss, movies at present have more often than not use "drunken" scenes as a tool of humour.
Lashing out at actors iconized by India's young and old, "portraying scenes of them consuming alcohol to drown their sorrow", Ramadoss said: "Earlier, mostly villains were shown consuming alcohol. Now, heroes have started to portray alcohol consumption, more often on screen."
Ramadoss, who hopes to get WHO designate October 2 — Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary — as the World No Alcohol Day during the World Health Assembly scheduled in May, added: "Alcohol consumption poses a grave threat to India, which has the world's youngest nation with 600 million people less than 30 years of age. Actors drinking on screen will encourage youngsters to take up the habit. Scenes depicting alcohol consumption in films need to immediately stop. WHO also has to set up a Framework Convention on Alcohol Control similar to the one they have for tobacco."