In an interview, Mahesh Babu has revealed that the beedis he smoked in 'Guntur Kaaram' were tobacco-free beedis. They were herbal beedis that don't harm one's health, he suggested. "I don't encourage smoking," he firmly asserted. While there are arguments that even herbal beedis can be harmful (forget herbal beedis, sometimes, even herbal capsules/syrups can be harmful), not everyone agrees with the superstar's explanation.
While Mahesh may have smoked herbal beedis during the shoot of his Sankranthi release, it is still the traditional beedi as far as the average audience member is concerned. Perception matters more than reality. Nobody sees it as a herbal beedi. Trivikram could have infused a scene where Mahesh playfully reveals that he smokes tobacco-free beedis. That would have been an advertisement for the relatively less harmful beedis if that's what was Mahesh's intention.
Saying that those beedis are healthy ones in an interview doesn't take the message across to even 1% of the audience. At the end of the day, what is shown in the film is what lives on for perpetuity. The glamourization of the traditional beedi is what it is.
