No Smoking

About the film

No Smoking is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language black comedy thriller film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap, and produced by Vishal Bhardwaj. The film stars John Abraham, Ayesha Takia, Paresh Rawal and Ranvir Shorey. The first Stephen King Hindi film adaptation, it follows K (Abraham), a wealthy, proud, chain smoking businessman, who agrees to quit smoking to save his marriage, and visits a rehabilitation centre to assuage his wife (Takia) and childhood friend (Shorey), only to be caught up in a labyrinthine plot by Baba Bangali (Rawal), the all-knowing man running the centre, who guarantees that he will make him quit.

Combining story ideas from Ram Gopal Varma, Raj Singh Chaudhary and "Quitters, Inc.", Kashyap pitched the film to Abraham, who wanted to work with him, and Bhardwaj, who wanted to produce for him, both of whom accepted. Principal photography took place in Dharavi, Kutch, Bandra, Dongri, Mumbai, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Bhardwaj also composed the music, while the lyrics were written by Gulzar. The film's themes include freedom, privacy, surveillance and censorship.

Plot

K, a confident, narcissistic and arrogant businessman in his 30s, is addicted to smoking. K's friends, Abbas and the doctor, offer to set up an appointment at a rehabilitation centre called Prayogshaala (lit. 'Laboratory'), but K ignores their advice. His addiction strains his relationship with his wife Anjali. After K cannot make love to her without having to stop to light up a cigarette, she leaves him.

K decides to check out Prayogshaala, and meets Shri Shri Prakash Guru Ghantal Baba Bangali Sealdah Wale there, the man running the rehabilitation centre. The method Prayogshaala uses to cure their patients is based on fear and psychological manipulation. Each time a patient gives in to their vice, Baba makes sure that something shocking happens to them, which includes:

1. Almost killing one of his loved ones, by keeping them in a chamber full of cigarette smoke he has smoked in his entire life for five minutes,

Production

During the making of Satya (1998), its director Ram Gopal Varma pitched a story to its writer Anurag Kashyap, about a chain smoker's encounter with someone who despises smoking. It inspired Kashyap to come up with an idea, which he shared with Varma, who in his turn laughed and dismissed it. Varma later incorporated his own idea of the story as a short segment, No Smoking starring Saif Ali Khan, in his anthology film, Darna Mana Hai (2003). Titling it Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health, Kashyap shared his idea with Boney Kapoor, which prompted him to remark "go back to the planet you came from!" Kay Kay Menon, the lead in Kashyap's unreleased Paanch (2003), liked the idea, but found it incomplete. During the shooting of Kashyap's Black Friday (2007), his assistant, Raj Singh Chaudhary, narrated him a different idea for a short film, in which he wanted Kashyap to act, about a chain smoker who wakes up without cigarettes and is unable to get any, because of a curfew. Kashyap agreed on the condition that Chaudhary allow him to combine both of their ideas. Kashyap's producer friends and acquaintances advised him to have a major actor back the idea. After he narrated it to Angad Paul, he suggested Shah Rukh Khan, but Kashyap wanted Menon, as he was interested in it. When Black Friday too couldn't find a release, and no one was ready to back his Gulaal, Kashyap started drinking…

In "Quitters, Inc.", after the chain-smoking protagonist Dick Morrison bumps into an old friend, their conversation leads Morrison to the titular facility in Manhattan. The story also features endless scrutiny, death threats and even a gas chamber. Both K and Morrison finds a patsy for the rehab at the end.

Kashyap began to approach actors through short messaging service; John Abraham replied back, because Deepa Mehta, the director of his Oscar-nominated Water (2005), for which Kashyap penned the dialogues, told him that he must work with Kashyap. Thinking that Abraham would not be able to understand the idea, and afraid of throwing away the chance, he narrated him an idea which he came up on his way to Abraham's residence in a rickshaw, titled Lapata (lit. 'Lost'), about a "bad actor", since Kashyap was told that Abraham wasn't a good actor. Abraham told him that he expected something more intelligent from Kashyap, seeing that people already regard him as a bad actor. Kashyap then told him about No Smoking, which the actor ended up loving. Lapata later formed the basis for Kashyap's Ugly (2013). Kashyap claimed that Abraham was trying to rediscover himself; that is what propelled him to accept the film, alongside Kabul Express (2006), Taxi No. 9211 (2006), Goal (2007), Aashayein (2010) and Water. Abraham provided Kashyap financial assistance and told him to finalise the script, which he did when he flew to the US. Since, the film didn't had a producer, Abraham reached out to UTV, but

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