Chennai, Sep 13 (IANS): Director Ameer, who made the National Award winning Tamil film 'Paruthiveeran', is to organise a World Fitness Federation (WFF), a national level body building and fitness competition on September 17 and 18 at Madurai KLN Engineering College.

The competition is to create awareness about the ill-effects of drugs and the importance of maintaining good health.

Giving out details about the initiative, Ameer said that health was an important aspect of human life, but that people had moved away from traditional food habits.

"As a result, people are not paying attention to their health like before. Just like how we follow fashion and lifestyle from western countries, we are also trying to replicate our food habits. However, it is important that awareness is created among the youth about staying healthy. There is a popular belief that only actors have to be fit, which is not true," he said.

He further said that there was a time when college students thought of passing out without any arrears.

"But now, we are at a stage where coming out of college without any drug habit is itself seen as a big achievement. This is a very disappointing and highly dangerous trend. We should concentrate more on our health. To achieve this we must focus on sports, body building or any other activity that will keep us away from drugs," he added.

Ameer said: "I started focusing on my health, only after I started appearing on screen. I realised that I was late. But I do not want others to start late. This is why I thought of conducting this competition with the support of my physical trainer Mohan, who has conducted many such events."

"Many people from India are participating. I do not want the event to get restricted in the capital city and hence the first event will be held in Madurai. More events will be conducted based on the response for this event," he added.

Ameer also said that unlike most other events, the competition will have a cash prize of upto Rs 10 lakh to encourage more participants.