MUMBAI, JUNE 1 First of all, I want to make it clear that I completely understand the concerns of the Health Minister. And that I support his concerns. I firmly believe that smoking is injurious to health and it shouldn’t be glorified at all.That said, I don’t think banning smoking in films is the way to go about it. Because it won’t make a difference in the real sense of the word. People who want to smoke will continue to. Such a decision will only curb the creativity of actors and film-makers.

I think the film industry should get together and speak to the minister. I will also speak to the seniors of the fraternity. I strongly recommend that as an industry we shouldn’t allow this to happen.

Because banning smoking on screen is not a solution. We have to see what this will mean in the long run. We’ve to think about this on a concept level. We have to decide what to show in films.

And if we have to think so much before portraying anything then we might as well stop making films. As I see it, if we can’t show any negative emotion in books, films or in any other creative form then we won’t have any creative medium left to express our views.

You see, creativity has different aspects of human expression. I can’t remove one aspect, even if it might seem negative. That means that we can’t portray a bad character on screen.

Ban not on: Anil Kapoor

• I’m currently working on a film titled Chocolate where my character has to smoke like a chimney. Now that a decision like this is being deliberated upon, does that mean that we scrap the film? And what about all the other films that are being shot? We spent so much energy, money and effort while making a film. It’s a bizarre decision. I don’t smoke in real life and agree that smoking should be discouraged. But you can’t ban it in movies.