New Delhi, July 11: The World Health Organisation wants India’s public to give up Bollywood songs as caller tunes on their mobile phones and replace them with short health messages from superstars of the entertainment industry.

The global health agency today launched what is being dubbed the world’s first attempt to promote health campaigns via caller tunes, drawing on the voices of 10 personalities from Bollywood and other entertainment sectors.

Amitabh Bachchan’s deep baritone will caution callers about high blood pressure, television comedian Cyrus Broacha will urge people to find ways to reduce stress, and playback singer Shaan will sing a short anti-tobacco jingle.

Mobile phone industry executives estimate that about 18 million mobile phone users across India have downloaded caller tunes — from Bollywood songs to jokes to dialogues — and a typical user receives an average of about 15 phone calls a day.

“We thought we should use this [caller tunes] medium for something that could be very useful to the public,” Nata Menabde, WHO’s representative in India, said after the launch.

“This has never been done before,” she said.

Minutes after the launch, university students and volunteers armed with posters and masks of the 10 celebrities fanned across a large mall in the capital urging members of the public to pick one of the new caller tunes.

Mobile phone users may select the caller tune of their choice from the website www.donateyourcallertune.in and download it.

Callers to such mobile phones would hear a health message instead of a standard dial tone.

The messages contained in the caller tunes are intended to get people to alter behaviour and reduce the risk of several non-communicable diseases that public health experts say account for nearly 53 per cent of premature deaths in the country.

“What callers will hear are not boring prescriptive messages,” said Seema Sood, director with Leo Burnett, the advertising agency whose team conceptualised the new campaign.

“There’ll be elements of entertainment in each caller tune,” she told The Telegraph, adding that the campaign launched today is a pilot phase.

Five mobile phone service providers (Aircel, Airtel, BSNL, Tata Docomo) have already agreed to make available these caller tunes to their customers, while a sixth service provider, Vodaphone, is expected to join the club soon, a senior WHO official said.

WHO is hoping the caller tune campaign will grow over time and complement the government’s national programme for the prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and stroke launched in 2010.

The national control programme currently implemented in 100 districts in 21 states seeks to use routine screening of patients attending government clinics and public messages to sensitise people about and take steps to reduce their risk of developing such non-communicable diseases.

“Celebrities have proven to be good ambassadors for various causes — their involvement adds a lot of value to this campaign,” Menabde said.