Anti-tobacco law must be followed in ‘Debi’ movie: Information minister

Information Minister Hasan Mahmud has asked the makers and distributors of the movie ‘Debi’ to follow the anti-tobacco law.

His attention was drawn to the allegation that the film ‘Debi’ has violated the law by showing off smoking habit of the protagonist at an event in Dhaka on Wednesday.

The minister was chief guest of the programme organised by Anti-tobacco groups Pragatir Jonyo Gyan or PROGGA and Anti-Tobacco Media Alliance or ATMA.

Mahmud said he was not aware of the allegation but will look into it.

“But no-one should do anything by ignoring the law,” he added.

Based on the first installation of Humayun Ahmed’s Misir Ali series, ‘Debi’ was screened on TV on Wednesday and will be on Thursday. It was released on Oct 19 last year.

Directed by Anam Biswas and produced by Jaya Ahsan, ‘Debi’ is a government-sponsored movie being distributed by Jaaz Multimedia.

PROGGA Coordinator Hasan Shahriar presented the keynote paper.

He hailed anti-tobacco efforts of the government saying the rate of tobacco use among adults has dropped to 35.3 percent from 43.3 percent.

But more should be done, he added, referring to many findings of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2017.

In Bangladesh, around 41 million people, mostly woman, are affected by passive smoking at home, though the rate of female smoker is only 0.8 percent, according to Shahriar.

The information minister emphasised anti-tobacco campaign on the social media.

Health Services Secretary Md Ashadul Islam and analyst Mahfuz Kabir also spoke at the programme chaired by journalist Mozammel Hossain.

Abdus Salam Mia of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, ATMA Convenor Mortuza Haider Liton, and PROGGA Executive Director ABM Zubair, among others, were present at the programme moderated by ATMA Co-Convenor Nadira Kiron.