- UK Government Wants In…
Bollywood and Indian themes have become a mainstay in Britain. Be it an advertisement for the banking giant Halifax which was shot in Hyderabad to Bollywood music, or be it Peugeot, the theme of Bollywood has been in demand.
In the Christmas festive season, Cadbury’s has its advert based on an Indian family, starring famous British-Indian soapstar Sanjiv Bhaskar. Even a film to highlight the dangers of HIV has been shot Bollywood style. Now Bollywood songs are being used to lure Asian women to go for cancer checks.
Health officials in Birmingham, which has a huge Asian population, believe Bollywood songs is an apt device to break the cultural barrier and attract Bangladeshi and Pakistani women to have checks for breast and cervical cancer. It has been found that Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in particular are vulnerable because they are reluctant to come forward for such tests due to cultural taboos.
The Heart of Birmingham Teaching Primary Care Trust has made a film showing an Asian woman visiting a clinic for screening with Bollywood songs, specially rewritten playing in the background. The film is made in English, Urdu and Bengali and is being shown at various Asian community and health centres.
Minister for Public Health Melanie Johnson said: “These videos are an excellent way of providing information and reaching out to communities where uptake of screening is low.” She informed that the NHS cervical screening programme has resulted in a drop of 42 per cent of cases of cervical cancer.
Shaireen Chaudhry, project manager for breast and cervical cancer screening, said: “Historically, women from ethnic minority communities have had lower than average screening rates for breast and cervical screening. This may be because of the taboos around the subject of screening in their communities, or because they simply don’t understand what screening involves.” *