Riteish Deshmukh

Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh is truly a health conscious person. The father of two has till date never smoked on screen. He had even refused to do so in a number of his past films even though the script demanded. But this time around things seems to have changed, as for his upcoming movie ‘Banjo‘, he has given a positive nod to smoke on-screen. Yes, the actor will be for the first time seen smoking on screen. But herein lies the catch, he will smoke but it will not be your regular cigarette but herbal one.

Riteish Deshmukh is depicting the role of a rock star in the upcoming film based on the life of Banjo players. The Ravi Jadhav directorial required him to smoke, to add authenticity to his role. Therefore he set an example for other and decided to smoke some herbal cigarettes.

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Sources said, “Riteish is against smoking. He was asked to smoke for some of his previous roles as well. But he always said no. However, in ‘Banjo’, he is playing the role of a street performer. He realised that his role required him to smoke. The actor then decided to opt for herbal cigarettes over the harmful tobacco ones.”

Riteish further elaborated that, “To make my character look more believable, I was supposed to smoke in a few scenes, as that was integral to the script. Thankfully, I had to smoke herbal cigarettes and not the actual ones that are harmful.”

‘Banjo’ also stars Nargis Fakhri as a romantic lead. The movie will release on September 23, 2016.

Also Read: PICS: Trailer launch of ‘Banjo’ starring Riteish Deshmukh and Nargis Fakhri