"No Smoking" is not just about quitting

Director Anurag Kashyap poses during a photo call to present his latest movie ''No Smoking'' at the Rome International Film Festival October 24, 2007.

ROME (Reuters Life!) - Director Anurag Kashyap says his new film "No Smoking", which premiered this week in Rome, is not just about kicking the habit but also about his own battles with censors at home.

The film, set in India, Azerbaijan and Russia, focuses on "K" - a rich and powerful chain-smoking businessman who decides to quit cigarettes after his wife threatens to leave him.

This then leads him to the "Laboratory", which is not quite the run-of-the-mill rehabilitation centre but a dungeon run by the mysterious Baba Bengali, whose ideas about therapy are quite different from the usual "twelve steps" programme.

Jazz music scores the scenes as "K", played by Bollywood model-turned-actor John Abraham, struggles to stick to his plan.

Each time he succumbs to the urge, the consequences are fatal: loved ones die and everything around him explodes into a huge inferno.

"I think actually the film is much more beyond smoking, it's also some kind of metaphor....I was losing a battle in the country, trying to get a film released, and constantly getting banned," Kashyap told Reuters in an interview.

Kashyap made his directorial debut in 2003, with "Paanch" - a film on sex, drugs and rock and roll.

A year later, he directed critically acclaimed "Black Friday", which is based on the 1993 serial bombings in India's financial capital Mumbai. Both films were banned in India.

"No Smoking", which mixes snippets of black comedy with song-and-dance numbers, is his third film and will premiere in India on Friday. Kashyap also wrote the script.

The film, which cost $3 million, has a clear message -- cigarettes are bad for you -- even though Kashyap himself smokes like a chimney. It had a warm reception at the Rome film festival, where it was screened outside competition.

"I've grown up on a staple diet of cinema from all over the world (...). Indian cinema I've seen it, but only for entertainment," he said, adding however that he was anxious to see how the film would be received in his home country.

"I want to reach out to my own audience before I reach out to the world," Kashyap said, frantically searching his pocket for a cigarette.