hare krishna dev anand tried to introduce the subject of drugs to india with a film titled the evil within 1970 but all his effort came to nought based on opium smuggling the film was shot majorly in the philippines and was produced by 20th century fox the subject matter of the film was so controversial that the film could never pass the muster of the censor boardtalking about how the topic of drugs made an entry in hindi films writer kamlesh pandey says the topic of drugs as the premise of our films was borrowed from hollywood substances like ganja opium and bhang had been an integral part of social interaction in india especially in rural india for thousands of years in fact drinking was more looked down upon than these substances around the late 70s and early 80s the hippie culture took over the us and europe and drugs became a popular element in their narrative which we borrowed it replaced gold electronics and watch smuggling in our movies the villain in almost every second hindi film was smuggling drugs and even consuming it jalwa was the first film to focus on the personal cost of drug addictionwhen ramanand sagar made charas in 1976 it came as a shock to the film industry as he was known to make family films the film did face problems but the title and the timing of the film were conducive as its release coincided with the phase when the country witnessed the draconian emergency the period also saw the censor board coming down heavily on films sagar had already rolled out the publicity and prerelease drill so the film was given some cuts and allowed to release the film focused on busting an international racket and was partly set in uganda during the idi amin era prior to this sagar had made jalte badan 1973 a film on drug addiction among the youthcinema changes as the lifestyle changesfilm critic dilip thakur is of the belief that cinema takes its inspiration from real life cinema has always taken a leaf out of life and put it in movies so from cigarettes or beedis films moved on to ganja and then we saw lethal drugs that are killing the youth of our country udta punjab cinema changes as the lifestyle changes this is one negative that should not be glorified in cinema says thakur the cinematic imagination of drugs can be seen in the excesses it shows which reflects the normative idea of drugs in indian society says sociologist shiv vishwanathan given the new middleclass aspiration drugs are the new normalised pathology it is the beginning of a new plot that turns you global criminal and antinational i think in that way the drug exceeds the old imagination of alcohol or sex in that sense the drug represents the globalisation of crime and pathology he elaboratesit was pankuj parashars jalwa that openly exposed the nightlife of goa with the subject inherently being antidrugs