Fenil and Bollywood

Bipasha Basu in Pankh

Bipasha Basu is a health freak and is known to never smoke or drink, which explains her bootylicious body. Now, she has refused to smoke a cigarette or even hold it for a scene in her forthcoming film, Pankh.

Our source said, “Sudipto Chattopadhyay, the director of the film, wanted Bipasha to smoke on screen for a vital sequence. However, Bipasha flatly refused as she does not encourage smoking and hates it. She was not in favour of the scene and if she smokes, it meant that she would be promoting smoking. After that, Sudipto even gave her the option of holding a cigarette, but she refused that as well. Sudipto understood her point of view and agreed to shoot the scene differently.”

Bipasha Basu confirms the story and maintains her anti-smoking stance. She said, “I don’t smoke and I don’t encourage smoking. Unless it’s absolutely essential to smoke for my role, I wouldn’t agree to do it. In Pankh, it was not essential, hence I refused. I had also refused to smoke in one of my earlier films, Corporate. If my role is that of an addict, then I will do whatever the character and the role demands, which was not the case with Pankh.”

Director Sudipto, though forced to alter the scene, decided to respect Bipasha’s wishes. He said, “It was a song sequence with a smoky atmosphere. We wanted to show that when she starts singing, smoke comes out of her mouth. However, she had a very valid point that smoking was a very politically incorrect thing to do. She said that she does not endorse smoking and she did not endorse John doing No Smoking. She had never smoked in her life. We can’t fake smoking like we do with drinking. So, eventually, we placed a canister jar in front of her which emitted smoke and we framed it in such a way that when she sings, it seems that the smoke is coming out of her mouth.”

Sanjay Gupta, the producer of the film, said, “It’s the question of an actor being comfortable. Bipasha had some inhibitions about it and it’s perfectly fine.”