We tend to choke up with emotions, gurgle about stress, especially when the middle-aged slip into the angio-zone. Look at the beauty of disclosures on social media. Sushmita Sen put out a post on her recent stent acquisition, and television channels were abuzz with the discussions on how the fit and fighting people in their 40s and 50s are getting seizures. No mention of her chronic smoke intake having fired her lungs for years.
My two-decade old career has consistently brought me into insightful conversations with many celebrities, and for most of them, the compulsive trait to reach out for a nicotine stick was something that has stayed. Like Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein. Many actresses, with porcelain skin and perfect 10 figures, have continued to light up one after the other during our conversations. Tactfully left unspoken in interviews. There were follow-up requests from secretaries, media managers, PR machinery to desist from making a smoky mention. So, what is with the puffing penchant? Do those who cluck in sympathy, fail to make a direct correlation between a heart trouble and the constant ciggie intake? Even now people are clapping, on how the brave and beautiful survive a heart-full jostle and are able to land neatly on their feet. Make no mention of the elective cancer stick, swirling in smoky fine print for 50 odd years.
Look around, closely. Priyanka Chopra was panned heavily for pictures of her holding a cigar aboard a swish yacht, with her simultaneously ironic public pleas to skip cracker-bursting. Apparently she has a breathing problem. Whether it is the demand of the urban lifestyle, in India or in Hollywood realm, or in yonder lands, the must-puff to be included in weed cliques, the desire to banter along with the upper crust along exotic coastlines, or the desire to create an image of a solo, strong, spirited woman a la erstwhile royal figures…there have been and are many actresses who have lit up with a vengeance and have resorted to drunken stupor. I remember how during my modelling days, the joints were passed out generously amidst the leggy collective. Whoever didn’t take to it, was considered a pariah.
Life always comes full circle. We sow seeds based on the habits we nourish during our early years and pay for them handsomely as we reach mid-life. With the life-filter being dipped frequently by us in the wellness quotient post the pandemic, it would be a great responsible act if the socially visible, Bollywood influencers took to endorsing the no-puff stance publicly, instead of simply aligning with lame disclaimers on the silver screen – Smoking is injurious to health