Anbumani welcomes Vijay's promise to shun smoking scenes

Chennai, Nov 29 (UNI) Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who has launched a crusade against smoking and is determined to make Chennai a smoke-free city by 2010, has welcomed popular Tamil actor Vijay's promise to comply with his request to avoid smoking scenes in his films.

''I saw news reports that actor Vijay has accepted my advice and agreed to stop smoking scenes in his films. I welcome this decision and offer my best wishes,'' Dr Ramadoss said in a release.

The actor's response comes a couple of days after the Union Minister appealed to him to stop smoking scenes in his films, as it would spoil the youth.

''When I made this appeal to Rajnikanth, he accepted it and there were no smoking scenes in his last two blockbuster films ''Chandramukhi'' and ''Sivaji-The Boss''.

Youngsters who treat popular actors as their role models would become spoiled by seeing such scenes, the Minister said and appealed to actor Vijay to ensure that there were no smoking scenes in his forthcoming films.

Responding to this, Vijay had issued a statement that he would comply with the minister's request.

Appreciating the actor's gesture, Dr Anbumani also sought his cooperation in health awareness programmes launched by the government.

UNI