News: Indian Censors advocate a Ban on smoking on screen.

Are today’s youth influenced by what they see in the Media (TV, Movies and the Videogames) ? Is Hollywood to blame ?

Well, here is a direct Q&A with Mark Taylor who survived Columbine High School Shooting where many young students were massacred.

Was there a connection between the release of the movie The Matrix and the Columbine shootings?

I fear so! I saw The Matrix at the Sony Theater in downtown Boston the first week of its release. In The Matrix, Neo is wearing a full-length black leather coat. Under the coat he has hidden an array of automatic weapons. He is also carrying duffel bags full of bombs. There are probably more bullets fired than in any previous movie. The bullets are destroying any object in sight. I don’t know what the name Neo is intended to mean.
The Columbine shooting happened the same week. From the description of the killers and the clothing they were wearing, I felt like I reading about a scene from the movie The Matrix. The Columbine killers were wearing full-length black leather coats and their weapons were hidden underneath their coats also. They were carrying duffel bags full of bombs. Had they seen The Matrix?

Maybe Matrix cannot be entirely blamed for for these twisted teens – but it does provided them with a pop culture reference point. Just as easily we can pluck out various examples from history and see how movies have played a part in our lives – Uprisings, Political vendetta, Social Values etc -even how movies were able to shape today’s Romantic symbols long before we were born.

In the early 1920′s after the World War I, Diamond makers were worried sick about the free fall in Diamond prices and that it was no longer considered rare (South African mines were producing diamonds by truckload and flooding the market). They came running to the Motion Picture industry to manipulate the public’s perception.

To romanticize diamonds required subtly altering the public’s picture of the way a man courts — and wins — a woman, they started exploiting the relatively new medium of motion pictures. Movie idols, the paragons of romance for the mass audience, would be given diamonds to use as their symbols of indestructible love. Stars were seen in umpteen photos wearing solitaire diamond rings. Even through the great depression (1929) audience tried to emulate their idols by matching their expensive lifestyle.

It goes to show how powerful media images can re-inforce entire generations. For a stone that is neither a rare, nor the toughest – infact its no tougher than a Ruby or Jade (which is infact tougher) – it holds a high place in the hearts of young women (wish my wife reads this thanks to some clever piece of subconscious marketing 2 generations back, which naturally spilled over generations and reached us, and will continue…

No matter what the actual truth is, a cross section of audiences are subconsciously mere puppets to what is projected to them. They are today’s teens. If a popular hero is shown smoking wearing a shirt collar up with boots strategically placed on a motorbike with its headlights on. You can walk out of the theater and guaranteed to see a college kid standing in a similar pose in front of a girls college. The same is true with women, you can find Kajol Saree, and Karishma Chuddihars.

But some of these perceptions maybe harmless (Cooldrinks or mobile phones), but a few of them are deadly – Guns, Murder and Smoking. Teens are particularly vulnerable as they are moving into an age where they suddenly finding themselves without a character, a void which could be easily filled by mimicking other powerful influences or on-screen persona, say a Rajini or a Neo. These disillusioned copycats think that they can magically transform overnight from zero to hero, just by emulating their hip matinee idols.

But if the industry can guarantee that mature themes (blood, violence, smoking, drinking etc) will only be viewed by mature audience (25+?) then go ahead show it to people who will not easily be swayed – but spare the teens and youth by strictly enforcing the underage Certifications. Or maybe there should be an untold rule that at least Heroes don’t smoke, so that a negative trait firmly in place for the act.

There is a reason why a Shah Rukh Khan can sell 1000s of Santro’s by posing near it, or a Sachin can boost Boost. We are a nation who follow celebrities like demi-gods (in some cases Gods) – be it good or bad.

But all said and done this Ban will not produce immediate effects on our youth – but our kids will thank us.