Bollywood's first Stephen King adaptation was so trippy it became its last
No Smoking, the surreal Indian adaptation of "Quitters, Inc." was too bold for its audience, but Anurag Kashyap's cult classic stands the test of time.
Is there anything more terrifying than losing your agency, which can throw you into confusion and madness? Writer-director Anurag Kashyap’s 2007 Indian film No Smoking frames this specific fear through the lens of a man with a grave nicotine addiction. After his frustrated wife leaves him, egotistical corporate executive K (John Abraham) visits a rehab facility in Mumbai’s seedy bylanes on the recommendation of a seemingly trustworthy friend. He’s met with a suspicious, rugged-looking specialist, Baba Bengali (Paresh Rawal), who promises to help, making K sign a contract that he cannot back out of—and the price of agreement gets increasingly maniacal and torturous. On the surface, No Smoking is as simple as its short story source, Stephen King’s “Quitter’s Inc.” But dig a bit deeper and you’ll find that this neo-noir spectacle is a sinister tale about authoritarianism and freedom of artistic expression. With No Smoking, Kashyap brought King’s work to Bollywood proper—the only other noteworthy Indian adaptation remains a 52-episode, It-inspired TV show in 1998 called Woh from Lagaandirector Ashutosh Gowariker.
No Smoking doesn’t just draw from King; this mind-melding flick borrows visual concepts and nonlinear storytelling from the likes of Franz Kafka and David Lynch, among others. But 1978’s “Quitter’s Inc.,” part of the Night Shift collection, remains its foundation. (The story was later adapted in the U.S. for the anthology Cat’s Eye.) In the King story, chainsmoker Dick Morrison bumps into an old pal at JFK. Their brief conversation leads him to the titular facility in Midtown Manhattan, where endless scrutiny and unusual methods (like death threats and even a gas chamber) turn Dick and his family’s lives upside down.
In No Smoking, K represents people afflicted with serious addictions who struggle to escape their patterns. He’s an antihero, garnering our empathy despite letting his ego prevail over common sense. And when he does seek a change, he’s forced to descend into a hell of sorts (an underground “prayogshala” or laboratory) where Baba Bengali emotionally, mentally, and physically manipulates him into giving up smoking—at the cost of his sanity.
K can also be seen as a stand-in for the director himself. Before No Smoking, Kashyap wrote acclaimed hits like the award-winning Satya and Yuva. But his 2003 directorial debut, Paanch, never saw the light of day because India’s notorious Central Board Of Film Certification banned it for depicting “drugs, violence, and strong language.” Then, Kashyap’s 2004 political thriller Black Friday (about investigating a real terror attack that took place in the city) was delayed by the Bombay High Court for nearly three years after a petition by one of the real-life accused was filed against it. It makes sense that Kashyap would feel like forces beyond his control were holding him back.
That also means that No Smoking was his first directorial effort, released without any problems. Still, he took quite a long time to make it. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was reportedly in talks to star, although Kashyap has stated in interviews that almost everyone advised Kashyap not to make the movie at all. Abraham, who had starred in a few out-of-the-box films by then (Water, Taxi No. 9211, Kabul Express), instantly said yes and still wishes they’d make a sequel together. But there was no chance of that: The film was a box office disaster, which was exacerbated by disappointing word of mouth and reviews that panned its ambition (“Leaves you completely baffled,” one stated; another was headlined “Kick Kashyap’s Butt.”)
One reason for this failure could be that Bollywood had never done a mainstream take on King’s horror, and a more experimental Mulholland Drive-like stylewas also new to that industry in the early aughts. Kashyap presents his hard truths in abstract ways and couched in metaphors. Take, for example, K’s nightmare of waking up in an isolated cabin on a snowy patch of land and hunting for a cigarette with the Russian military after him. He’d rather die asking for a lighter than save himself. There’s also the idea that, having been punished by Baba Bengali, K—or rather, his soul—gets imprisoned to highlight his distorted state of mind after being psychologically tortured for so long. The whole narrative gets trippier (helped along by Rajeev Ravi’s excellent cinematography), once K witnesses his life and marriage come undone through a mirror dimension.
Even the subtext that K represents Kashyap (the initial, as well as being a Kafka reference, should’ve been a clue) comes courtesy of oddball imagery. Two of K’s fingers get chopped off as a punishment for taking a drag when he explicitly vowed not to. While this bit is pulled straight out of “Quitters Inc.,” Kashyap has gone on record to say it also thematically fits into how Paanch and Black Friday were dismissed—it essentially felt like his own fingers, fingers that hold the mighty pen, were being cut off. Melodramatic? Maybe. Resonant? Absolutely. For Kashyap, K’s journey through hell and back represents his own as an artist, one in which he has to fight against a system that controls his output and tries to define what the general public should and shouldn’t consume.
And yet, when Black Friday finally got its release, it was met with international acclaim, and Kashyap went on to make a slew of novel films like Dev.D, Gulaal, Raman Raghav 2.0, and Manmarziyaan. These films spring from No Smoking and its bold, methodical, surprising approach that demands its viewers make their own interpretations.
If No Smoking felt like a fever dream in 2007 (one I enjoyed back then and maintain is Abraham’s strongest performance to date), then revisiting it in 2025 makes me like it even more. Considered a cult classic today, the film was ahead of its time in more ways than one, like in its critique of the surveillance state. Baba Bengali constantly has eyes on K, no matter how many flights he takes or remote places he goes to—even in the privacy of his own home. The movie doesn’t need to explain how Baba Bengali has such powers (maybe it’s something supernatural or extraterrestrial, or maybe it’s all in K’s head). But there’s no denying it drives K to the brink of insanity. Viewed in the present day, there’s a degree of relatability to being observed at all times—and to being addicted to the very tools and services observing you.
K’s tumultuous breakdown ends the same way it does for Dick in “Quitters Inc.,” with both men finding a patsy who might be a good fit for the rehab they “graduated” from. But No Smoking expands upon King’s writing, putting a newly personal spin on a deceptively straightforward (and obviously already personal) story. Bollywood’s lone King feature adaptation didn’t just set up a boundary-pushing filmmaker, but continues to stand on its own.
