Tuesday, September 6 2005 16:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: Eminent film-maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan today (Sept 6, 2005) termed as a 'grand mistake' the Government's decision to ban smoking scenes on celluloid.

"It is a very wrong decision. I hope it is not put into practice," Adoor, who won the Dada Saheb Phalke award yesterday (Sept 5, 2005), told PTI here on the Centre's move to cut smoking scenes in films with effect from October 2, 2005.

He said there were so many bad things in life which could not be 'banned' altogether. "Can they ban gambling, adultery and underworld characters on screen? If you start removing all evil from the screen, ultimately who will be there on the screen," he asked.

Adoor said the whole drama in life was the struggle between opposites, between good and bad. As for smoking, it was often the bad guy who smoked on the screen. "I don't think people will try to imitate the bad guy," he said.

"I don't smoke. But that does not mean that I can go on prohibiting others who smoke," he said.