New Delhi, Nov. 11: All old movies and television programmes showing tobacco products will have to display anti-tobacco messages for 30 seconds before the start and during the middle of the film or the programme, under new rules announced by the Union health ministry today.

The rules, which will come into effect from November 14, also require that an anti-tobacco health warning be displayed as a “prominent scroll” at the bottom of the screen during the period that the tobacco product is shown in a movie or a television programme.

The ministry has asked new movies or television programmes to provide “strong editorial justification” for the display or the use of tobacco products, and the concerned actor or actress (shown using tobacco) will have to deliver a minimum 20-second disclaimer about the ill effects of tobacco at the start and during the middle of the feature.

Brands of cigarettes or other tobacco products will have to be cropped, masked, or blurred, the ministry said, echoing concerns expressed by anti-tobacco campaigners that movies have emerged as vehicles to promote tobacco amid other constraints on tobacco promotion.

“This is a progressive move, but it has been pending for five years,” said Amit Yadav, a legal consultant with the Public Health Foundation of India, and legal manager with Hriday, a non-government agency that has been promoting health messages among young people.

Several experimental studies in the past have shown that young people who watch the use of tobacco in movies or films tend to shift their attitude in favour of using tobacco. Studies also suggest that anti-tobacco messages shown prior to a film blunts the effect of smoking imagery.

The ministry said it will send a representative in the Central Board of Film Certification to track tobacco use in movies. “Now, film-makers won’t be able to glamourise tobacco use any more,” said Monika Arora, executive director with Hriday.

India had passed a law prohibiting tobacco advertisements in 2003 that bans all direct, indirect, and surrogate promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products.

But anti-tobacco campaigners have said that since the law was implemented, tobacco manufacturers have developed marketing strategies that include depiction of tobacco use and brand placement of tobacco products in movies.

A 2003 survey of the portrayal of tobacco in Indian cinema suggested that three out of four movies showed tobacco in some form, four out of 10 movies displayed a lead character smoking, and 15 per cent of films displayed tobacco brands.