The highly-anticipated teaser of the second instalment to the KGF franchise release online and broke numerous records with its mass appeal. While the teaser is close to 150 million views on video streaming platform, YouTube, the Karnataka Health Department has asked the lead actor, Yash, to take down the teaser from social media platforms.
A week after the release of the teaser, Karnataka Health Department has sent a show-cause notice to actor Yash for not putting a statutory warning on the screen that says, “Smoking is injurious to health”. While it is mandatory to display the caption, neither the movie teaser not the posters display any such message. “Both the teaser and the posters encourage cigarette smoking,” the notice stated asking Yash to remove this teaser from social media platforms.
“Yash, you are a heart-throb and you have immense fan following. Your actions should not mislead the youngsters. We want you to join our campaign against cigarette smoking,” the notice read. The Karnataka State Anti-Tobacco Cell has contended that the visuals depicting the actor smoking a cigarette in the movie teaser violated Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) 2003, also referred to as COTPA 2003, and sought deletion of the teaser from online platforms.
A letter requesting to take down the teaser and the posters have also been sent to director Prashant Neel, producer Vijay Kiragandur and the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. However, it has been made clear that the letter is not asking the makers of the movie to remove the scene from the movie itself.
Featuring Yash and Sanjay Dutt in key roles, KGF: Chapter 2 will release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages.
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