Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking, starring John Abraham is going to have its international premiere at the Rome Film Festival. This is very exciting news to Kashyap and he is very proud to have the film receive an invitation from the festival. The festival opens on October 18th.
The story of No Smoking is according to Kashyap :”The main character is a chain smoker and his wife is sick and tired of him and his biggest problem is that he can’t quit smoking no matter who tells him what. If you tell him that you don’t like him smoking, he will blow smoke on your face. He is that kind of man. So his wife threatens to leave him if he doesn’t quit and when he doesn’t listen, she leaves. Then to get her back, his friends and doctor make him join a rehabilitation programme which forms the basis of the film.” The movie also stars Ayesha Takia in two different roles, along with Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak.
Watching the trailer you can see the film is going to be full of interesting and unusual scenes. One of those unusual scenes has John and his co-star Ranvir acting like teenagers. The scene is a flashback to when the characters first started smoking and instead of using child artistes the director used John and Ranvir. The two began acting like a couple of adolescents and did so well the scene was canned in one take and the director says it is one of the best scenes of the film.
Because the film is about quitting smoking, producer Kumar Mangat put in place a special condition on the set to get the crew to stop. “We are making a film called No Smoking but everyone is smoking on the sets and having fun so I decided that whoever I catch smoking, will have to pay a fine of Rs 500,” said Mangat. And the worst offender….the director himself! “I was fine the first time I had to pay Rs 500 and I was even given a receipt. I thought it was a joke but then I was surprised when I kept getting fined so I started leaving the sets to go and smoke. However, my work was getting affected by this so I agreed to pay the fine but only if they could catch me by taking my picture. How was I to know that a man was especially assigned to take my picture so I actually ended up paying a fine of more than Rs 1.5 lakh,” said Kashyap.
Though apparently a chain smoker himself Kashyap’s film most definitely has the quit smoking message. “I have subtly dropped the message that people should quit smoking but not under pressure. My film shows one can only leave a habit when that person has decided to quit. Nobody can force anybody out of addiction,” he said.
About No Smoking John says, ” It’s a very socially respectable film. I think the youth needs to see the film.”
Catch it at theaters when it releases on Oct 26th.
