President Murmu Asks Film Stars Not to Endorse Harmful Products, Seeks Social Security for Film Workers

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Ekta Nagar (Kevadia), Narmada district, Gujarat. President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday, September 22, urged popular film artistes not to endorse products harmful to people’s health, while presenting the 72nd National Film Awards for 2024 near the Statue of Unity. “When successful artistes speak about the benefits of a disciplined lifestyle, millions of children and young people emulate them. I urge popular artistes not to endorse products that are harmful to people’s health. A true star is the one who spreads light, not darkness,” she said, according to PTI in The Hindu. To endorse means to appear in an advertisement and lend one’s name and face to a product. The reports do not say which products she had in mind. The President also asked the film industry to ensure respect and social security for workers, small-scale artistes, assistants and others who contribute to the creative economy while struggling to make their mark. She recalled that at the previous ceremony she had urged the industry to make respect and sensitivity towards every crew member part of its work culture, adding, “I hope you are paying heed to these requests.” She called for greater participation of women on the juries, saying many women were among the awardees and that “only when the perspective of women is included does it create a vision for entire humanity”, The Indian Express reports. This was the first time the ceremony was held outside Delhi. Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the idea was modelled on the G20, which was held across States and Union Territories, and invited them to propose tourist destinations for future ceremonies. Kannada actor Anant Nag received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honour in cinema. Article 370, directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale, won Best Feature Film, and Yami Gautam won Best Actress for it. Mammootty (Bramayugam, a record-equalling fourth win that places him alongside Amitabh Bachchan) and Kartik Aaryan (Chandu Champion, as Paralympic gold medallist Murlikant Petkar) shared Best Actor. Angen (Invisible), directed by Ravi Raj Murmu of Jharkhand, became the first Santali film to win; the President, herself Santali, said it boosted “cultural diversity and social inclusivity”. Bhangaar won Best Non-Feature Film and Ramnami Best Documentary. The syllabus links are GS2 on health and consumer protection, GS1 on the role of media and culture, and GS4 on social influence and persuasion.

Static syllabus linkage

1. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 makes endorsers answerable for misleading advertisements. Section 2(28) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 defines a misleading advertisement, and Section 10 establishes the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) to regulate false and misleading advertisements. Under Section 21, the CCPA can penalise a manufacturer or an endorser up to ₹10 lakh, rising to ₹50 lakh for a subsequent contravention. It can also bar an endorser from making any endorsement for up to one year, and up to three years for a repeat offence. An endorser escapes liability only if he or she exercised due diligence to verify the claims made in the advertisement.
2. Surrogate advertising is banned by guidelines, and tobacco advertising by statute. Surrogate advertising means advertising a product whose own advertising is banned, such as tobacco or liquor, by using the same brand name on another product like a mouth freshener, soda or music CD. The CCPA’s Guidelines for Prevention of Misleading Advertisements and Endorsements for Misleading Advertisements, 2022 prohibit surrogate advertising and require that an endorsement reflect the endorser’s genuine opinion based on adequate information or experience of the product. Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA), 2003 prohibits direct and indirect advertising of tobacco products. The Advertising Code under the Cable Television Networks Rules, 1994 also bars advertisements for cigarettes, tobacco products and liquor on television.
3. The Supreme Court has said celebrities share responsibility for what they endorse. In the Indian Medical Association v. Union of India case, which concerned misleading advertisements for health products, the Supreme Court in May 2024 said that advertisers, advertising agencies and endorsers are equally responsible for false and misleading advertisements. It said celebrities and social media influencers must act with responsibility because the public trusts them. It also directed that advertisers submit a self-declaration before an advertisement is published or broadcast. Separately, the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 bans advertisements that claim to cure specified diseases.
4. Film workers’ social security now rests on the labour codes. The Code on Social Security, 2020 subsumed nine central laws, including the Cine-Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1981, and for the first time defined gig workers and platform workers alongside unorganised workers. It allows the Centre and States to frame social security schemes for these workers. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 subsumed the Cine-Workers and Cinema Theatre Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1981. The four labour codes were brought into force in November 2025, and the e-Shram portal, launched in 2021, is the national database for registering unorganised workers.

Why UPSC loves this

1. GS4 directly covers social influence and persuasion. The GS4 syllabus lists “social influence and persuasion” under attitude, and “role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values”. Case studies on public figures endorsing harmful products are a natural fit, and the President’s phrase “a true star spreads light, not darkness” can be quoted in an answer on role models and responsibility.
2. Consumer protection and misleading advertising are rising Prelims topics. The CCPA, the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Supreme Court’s 2024 directions on misleading advertisements are recent, well-defined and testable. Questions can ask who can be penalised, what the maximum penalties are and which body regulates advertisements.
3. The creative economy and informal work connect GS1 and GS3. Film sets depend on daily-wage and contract workers, from spot boys to junior artistes. Questions on informalisation, gig work and social security can use the film industry as an example of a glamorous sector built on insecure labour.

Analysis

1. The law already reaches endorsers; the gap is enforcement and the size of the penalty. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019, the 2022 guidelines and the Supreme Court’s 2024 directions already make an endorser answerable for misleading or surrogate advertising. Yet surrogate advertisements for pan masala and so-called mouth fresheners featuring film and sports stars remain common on television and at sporting events. A maximum penalty of ₹10 lakh is small next to endorsement fees that run into crores, and a one-year ban from endorsements has rarely been used against a major star. The President’s appeal to conscience is therefore partly an admission that the law, as enforced, has not changed behaviour.
2. “Harmful” is a spectrum, which is why conscience must do the work at the margins. Tobacco is clearly harmful and its advertising is banned by statute. Real-money online games were banned along with their advertising by the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025. But sugary drinks, ultra-processed snacks and some “health” supplements are legal products, and the Supreme Court held in Tata Press v. MTNL (1995) that commercial speech is protected under Article 19(1)(a). The State cannot ban every endorsement of an unhealthy but lawful product. In that grey zone, the endorser’s own judgment is the only real filter, and that is exactly where the President placed her appeal.
3. A star’s influence on children is unequal, so the duty is heavier. The President pointed out that millions of children and young people copy successful artistes. Children cannot easily tell a paid advertisement from a genuine recommendation, and they trust the characters a star plays on screen. That is why the Department of Consumer Affairs’ 2023 guidelines for social media influencers require clear disclosure of paid endorsements. An actor who plays a disciplined athlete on screen and then sells a harmful product off screen is trading on trust that the audience gave for another reason. The counter-view is that adults are free to choose, but the argument is weakest where the audience is children.
4. The social security appeal is the more important half of the speech. Film sets run on daily-wage labour: light workers, junior artistes, stunt performers, assistants and spot boys, many without written contracts, health cover or pensions. The President’s repeat of her earlier appeal, and her line “I hope you are paying heed”, suggests that little has changed since the last ceremony. The Code on Social Security, 2020 makes schemes for such workers possible, but coverage depends on registration on e-Shram and on producers and platforms actually contributing. The industry could lead by writing insurance and minimum safety terms into production contracts, instead of waiting for the State to act.
5. Taking the awards out of Delhi and honouring a Santali film show culture as federal and inclusive. Holding the first ceremony outside Delhi, and inviting States to bid with tourist destinations on the model of the G20, turns a national award into a way to spread attention across the country. The first award for a Santali film, Angen, recognises a language added to the Eighth Schedule only in 2003. The President’s call for more women on juries follows the same logic: who judges shapes what gets recognised. The risk is that the ceremony becomes a tourism event and loses its focus on cinema, so the jury’s independence and the quality of selection must remain the priority.

Administrator's brainstorm