Concerned over the impression they leave on youngsters when they smoke on the silver screen, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has urged Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan [Images] and Shah Rukh Khan [Images] to desist from 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," he said.

"..I have already made appeals to Shah Rukh Khan...I would like to make an appeal to him and Amitabh Bachchan and all other personalities," Ramadoss said in an interview to a TV channel.

He was also critical of Khan for smoking at a cricket match.

Questioned on his pet theme of pictorial warnings on cigarette and bidi packets, he said, "I am sure they would be very effective. All this time we have been saying things to people. But I believe it is now time to scare them.

"In contrast to developed countries where tobacco incidence is going down, in India, it is going up frighteningly," the minister said.

Confronted with the fact that the government had agreed to pictorial warnings 18 months ago but was yet to implement it, Ramadoss said the delay was due to 'political activity and the judiciary'.

However, the government's intention was to enforce pictorial warnings and there were no two ways on that, he added.