Is Union Health Ministry's set of guidelines for OTT regarding depiction of tobacco products a step in the right direction?
Sheetal
On World No-Tobacco Day on Wednesday, the Union Health Ministry released a set of guidelines for the regulation of online depiction of tobacco products in online curated content.
The ministry also made an amendment in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2004 that from now on every series and films on OTT will air anti-tobacco warnings just like big screen films and television shows.
We talk to directors and actors to know how they interpret this move. Do they believe that of late, OTT platforms have become the second home to surrogate advertisements?
What’s the news!
It is mandatory for publishers of online curated content that ‘display tobacco products or their use’ to comply with specific guidelines. These include
- The display of anti-tobacco health warnings, lasting a minimum of 30 seconds each at the beginning and middle of the programme.
- Publishers must exhibit anti-tobacco health warnings as a prominent static message at the bottom of the screen during the display of tobacco products or their use.
- Additionally, an audio-visual disclaimer on the ill-effects of tobacco use, lasting a minimum of 20 seconds each, must be shown at the beginning and middle of the programme.
- The health spots, messages and disclaimers will be made available to the publisher of the online curated content on the website “mohfw.gov.in” or “ntcp.mohfw.gov.in.”
- The anti-tobacco health warning message displayed as a static message must be legible and readable, with black font on a white background, and must include the warnings “Tobacco causes cancer” or “Tobacco kills.”
- Furthermore, the health warning message, health spot, and audio-visual disclaimer should be in the same language as used in the online curated content.
- The display of tobacco products or their use in online curated content is prohibited from including the brands of cigarettes or other tobacco products or any form of tobacco product placement.
- Additionally, the display of tobacco products or their use in promotional materials is strictly prohibited.
The right direction
It might be acceptable for crime dramas such as Sacred Games, She or Aashram to display a negative character being addicted to smoking or drinking but when one cannot differentiate between a crime series and a teen drama, then it’s worrisome. While the latest release, Class, has such portrayals of school children smoking rampantly, in another popular Netflix series, Mismatched, you find a college professor, played by Ranvijay Singha, smoking a joint. The same reason director-producer Vinay Bhardwaj sees this health ministry amendment as a welcome move. He explains, “This guidelines coming on World No Tobacco Day is the first step in the right direction. In the name of creativity, OTT has churned out content that’s not good for the community, especially impressionable youngsters. This also puts OTT in the same league as cinema and television. There has been the need to bring the different entertainment mediums adhere to similar rules and regulations.”
The director believes that with regard to OTT, the stakes are even higher as in cinema one can still ensure the age limit. TV has long adhered to regulations; it’s makers on OTT who need to be more careful.
Seek better alternative
Actor Abhishek Banerjee, who was discovered, thanks to OTT platform, feels that the government should look for something important to work on. “I wonder why there is no regulation on their ministers abusing on TV channels,” he quips. Director Prasad Kadam also holds a similar opinion and calls the move ‘an unnecessary distraction in viewing experience.’
Prasad adds, “Today they will add anti-tobacco statutory warnings, tomorrow they will say blur the liquor bottles. Next will be— whenever there is a murder scene they would want us to write under which Section the murderer gets arrested. There is nothing wrong in issuing statement in public interest, but don’t make a mockery of filmmaking and film viewing experience. Moreover, these forced warnings never work. We all know Mukesh, he has become a joke for millennial and Gen Z. We understand the ministry is serious about giving out a strong message about tobacco and tobacco products but there are better ways to do it. A research has found that forced advertising never works; viewers eventually hate the brands that pop up on internet. These mandatory health-advisories are no different. I think the ministry should look for better alternatives.”
Bharadwaj accepts that some makers might see it as a curb on creative freedom. He opines, “Creative liberty and social responsibility go hand-in- hand. So far OTT has had an open run. In absence of a censor board, they could have come up with a self-regulation system.”
