New Delhi: Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss was today all praise for Tamil superstar Rajinikanth for not smoking on screen in his last two films and hoped Bollywood biggies would follow the South Indian actor.

Anbumani Ramadoss, facing an all-round attack from the film fraternity after he made an appeal to movie stars to avoid smoking and drinking on screen, said: "When Rajinikanth can do movies without smoking, why can't anybody else follow?"

Rajinikanth's latest movies -- Sivaji -- The Boss and Chandramukhi -- did not have any smoking scene, Ramadoss noted. "There were no smoking scenes in Rajnikanth's last two movies and they were biggest grossers in the history of Indian films," Ramadoss told CNN-IBN news channel.

The Tamil superstar quit smoking on screen after Ramadoss had made an appeal to him to give up cigarette smoking mannerism on screen. Rajinikanth and the Minister's father and PMK founder S Ramadoss crossed swords during the release of the actor's Baba in 2002. The PMK founder had accused Rajinikanth, who has a huge fan following across South India, of "spoiling" the younger generation who emulate his "smoking styles" on screen. And the actor had even directly campaigned against the party during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections

Courtesy : www.sify.com