On World No Tobacco Day, one expected at least one of the three Khans – SRK, Salman and Aamir to be precise – to kick up the butt, but though willing, none of them are ready to spurn the tobacco stick.
The three have been fighting a hitherto unsuccessful battle against smoking. For the last 10 years, they have declared their hate for cigarettes in public many times. They have also tried kicking the butt, only to pick it up after a point of time.
Shah Rukh had tweeted recently, "They (Shah Rukh's children Aryan and Suhana) don't like me smoking. I see that as a blessing. If they had no objection, I would have continued smoking."
Shah Rukh also had a public spat with former health minister Ambumani Ramadoss when the latter urged him to quit smoking.
"It is just a misinterpretation that I have snubbed the Health Minister. I too want to quit smoking in real life," Shah Rukh had said at a news conference when he was asked about the controversy.
The fact remains that Shah Rukh even today is a heavy smoker and according to his close friends, can't do without a cigarette for more than three hours. "Sometimes he still ends up smoking 8-10 packets a day," says a close friend of the star.
Salman smokes lesser number of cigarettes than Shah Rukh. But one would see him incessantly lighting up the cancer sticks when he is chilling out with friends. "I am a heavy smoker but I don't want you to write that. I don't want your children to take up smoking just because I do. I smoke because I haven't been able to kick the habit," Salman had told DNA newspaper when he was promoting his last film a few months ago.
"Bhai is not proud of the fact that he smokes. But he has cut down a lot on his smoking. These days, he tries not to smoke more than 3-4 packets a day and that too the 'Milds' brand of cigarettes," says a close friend of the star.
Aamir, meanwhile, remained off the butt for months on end but he too gave up one day. "I am sorry to tell you that I have smoked again," he wrote on his blog and justified it saying it was because of the tension as his film was about to release.
