15 October,2024 02:40 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Akshay Kumar in the ad
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has discontinued Akshay Kumar's popular anti-smoking ad featuring Nandu. For six years, the ad has been played on the big screen before the screening of every Hindi film in the country. The ad has now been replaced with a fresh ad on anti-tobacco. In 2012, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare along with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting mandated that films depicting smoking scenes need to play anti-smoking ads before the beginning of the film and after the intermission point.
According to a report in Bollywood Hungama, the Akshay Kumar ad has been replaced by a new ad that highlights the benefits of quitting tobacco products. It highlights the changes observed in a body just 20 minutes after quitting.
The recently released films like Alia Bhatt's Jigra and Rajkummar Rao and Triptii Dimri's 'Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video' were released without the Akshay Kumar ad. They had the new ads playing before the screening and during intermission.
The ad was played widely and during every show which led to people learning the lines of the ad by heart. It was first played in the year 20218 during the release of Kumar's film Gold. The ad sees Akshay Kumar arriving in a cycle in front of a village hospital and talking to a man he addresses as Nandu. He tells Nandu that in the money he will save on cigarettes by quitting smoking can be used to buy sanitary pads for his wife that will save her from diseases. Nandu in this ad was played by an actor named Ajay Singh Pal.
Ajay was an extra on Akshay's 2018 film 'Padman'. In the movie, he sells cotton to Akshay's character. He was spotted there and was later called to shoot the anti-smoking ad, a report in Midday mentioned. Ajay was also a part of Akshay's 2023 film Selfie.
In an interview with the entertainment portal, Ajay had spoken about getting recognised in public as Nandu. "Out of 100, 20-25 people on average realize that I am Nandu. Most people however feel that Nandu must be a big star staying in Mumbai and that he can't be seen in Bhopal! A few remark that I look like that guy from the anti-smoking ad! Haan, bacche bade sharp hote hai; bacche pehchaan lete hai mujhe," he shared.
