Woody Allen decides not to release Blue Jasmine in India

Woody Allen has blocked release of his new film , Blue Jasmine, in India because the Indian government requires an anti-smoking ad to run concurrently with the smoking on screen while the film is running.

This policy response was developed after years of negotiation and litigation with Bollywood over the issue of smoking in the movies, in part as an alterative to giving smoking movies an mature audience rating (what Smoke Free Movies recommends).  

Blue Jasmine,' a PG-13 film with echoes of A Streetcar Named Desire, is the first of Allen's films released since India began enforcing movie-smoking rules last year. These rules aim to discourage the tobacco industry from exploiting Indian film and to lessen the harm to young audiences from tobacco imagery, no matter where it originates.

Mr. Allen's specifically objected to the warning text under smoking scenes that India requires. Of course, he could avoid the crawl by omitting the smoking. The choice he made should be respected.

At the same time we should applaud India for implementing policies to protect its youth from the effects of onscreen smoking and applying its policies to all films.

All societies -- exemplified by the government of India's actions -- have an obligation to protect their young against tobacco addiction. One effective policy — the adult rating for tobacco — applied transparently across film markets just as India applies its rules equally to all filmmakers, would avert millions of tobacco deaths.

Presumably Mr. Allen was aware of this rule when he decided to make his film.  He, of course, had the option of releasing a slightly different cut (leaving out the smoking) to avoid the anti-smoking ad.  Film producers often release different cuts of films for different countries and even different audiences, such as for viewing on television or airlines.

Of Mr. Allen's last four films — all made with generous public film subsidies — three are rated for kids (PG-13) in the US. All four films feature smoking. Together, they present more than 100 smoking incidents.

The idea that there needs to be action to protect youth from the effects of onsceen smoking are widely accepted.  Indeed, Mr. Allen's US distributor (Sony), along with every other major Hollywood studio, includes anti-tobacco spots on its DVDs of youth-rated movies with smoking.

Perhaps this episode will convince the studios who are making blockbuster movies directed at youth audiences to leave smoking out of films they want to sell to kids in India ... and everywhere else.

Here are links to news stories from the New York Times and Daily Mail.

(By the way, Blue Jasmine is a great movie.  Cate Blanchett delivers an amazing performance.)