MACHO images from Bollywood films may be helping to fuel a smoking epidemic among Asian men, according to a study carried out in the North-East.

Researchers recruited 13 members of Tyneside's Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities to investigate attitudes to smoking.

Over a period of two years about 140 male and female smokers and non-smokers aged from 19 to 90 took part in the project.

The researchers from Newcastle University found that smoking was a strong part of social identity in men - an idea reinforced by fashionable images of smoking in Indian films. In contrast, it was not considered acceptable for Asian women to smoke, with many of those questioned believing it was shameful and disrespectful.

Study author Dr Martin White, a Cancer Research UK scientist at the university, said: "Bollywood films, which are popular among the UK's South Asians, often show their leading men with a cigarette in their hand, as did the Hollywood films of the forties and fifties. If the handsome hero is the one seen lighting up in these films, it gives smoking a positive image - and one that can affect those watching."

Researchers also found that it was more acceptable for the older generation, particularly the male elders, to smoke. For younger South Asians, smoking was seen to be disrespectful. Peer pressure and rebellion had a strong influence on starting smoking.

Jean King, director of tobacco control at Cancer Research UK, said: "This study has unpacked the culture of tobacco smoking in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, which is vital if we are to develop ways to help reduce the high smoking and cancer rates in South Asian men.

The research was sponsored by Cancer Research UK and the Department of Health.