Health conscious actress refuses to smoke on screen..

September 1, 2009 - Bipasha Basu is an Indian film actress who appears in Bollywood (informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India) films and a former model. She has refused to smoke a cigarette or even hold it for a scene in her forthcoming film, Pankh.

“Sudipto Chattopadhyay, the director of the film, wanted Bipasha to smoke on screen. However, Bipasha flatly refused as she does not encourage smoking and hates it. She was not in favour of the scene and if she smokes, it meant that she would be promoting smoking. After that, Sudipto even gave her the option of holding a cigarette, but she refused that as well. Sudipto understood her point of view and agreed to shoot the scene differently.”

Bipasha Basu confirms the story and maintains her anti-smoking stance. She said, “I don’t smoke and I don’t encourage smoking. Director Sudipto, though forced to alter the scene, decided to respect Bipasha’s wishes. Sanjay Gupta, the producer of the film, said, “It’s the question of an actor being comfortable. Bipasha had some inhibitions about it and it’s perfectly fine.”

Photogallery - Bipasha Basu..

Reference: No smoking, please: Bipasha, Kunal M. Shah, Mumbai Mirror, The Times of India, 8/29/2009.

Click on image to enlarge, note: no wrinkles..