New Delhi, Jan 27 : Concerned over a large number of children taking to smoking after seeing celebrities doing so on the big screen, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has appealed Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan to avoid smoking in their films.

"The movies are most responsible (for encouraging smoking). When I said movies should not have smoking scenes we have statistics which show that 52 per cent of children have their first puff of a cigarette because of movie celebrities," Ramadoss said in an interview to a private news channel.

He said that he had already made appeals to Khan and would like to again appeal to him and Bachchan and all other personalities to avoid smoking scenes.

Ramadoss went on to say that Khan should not have smoked in the stands while watching a cricket match in Mumbai.

He also said that Bachchan and Khan could learn a thing or two from Tamil superstar Rajnikant regarding smoking onscreen.

According to Rajnikant, he had agreed not to smoke in his movies because Ramadoss has made a personal appeal to him.

ANI