"The health ministry should focus on revamping and plugging the holes in our primary and secondary healthcare infrastructure, instead of trying to get some cheap brownie points in parliament."

There are some filmmakers who understand the ministry's aim of banning cigarette smoking in films, but the imposition would be in vain.

Veteran director Lekh Tandon said cigarettes are often used in films as a medium to express depression and even if filmmakers refrained from using them, it won't make much of a difference.

"People know smoking is injurious to health but if they want to smoke, let them smoke and let them die. There's no point in banning smoking scenes in films as it would neither reduce nor encourage tobacco intake," Tandon said.

Anurag Basu, who is known for films like Gangster - A Love Story and Life... In A Metro, seconds his opinion.

He narrated how while shooting for Life... In a Metro, he had problems in showing a scene where the actress Kangana Ranaut's character was to smoke. He finally did away with the scene and it didn't affect the flow of the film.

"I completely support a ban but banning smoking in films will hardly make any difference to tobacco consumption in real life. One has to take bigger steps like banning smoking in all public areas, like European countries," Basu suggested.