Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi among members as Centre reconstitutes film board - The Indian Express
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry reconstituted the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on Wednesday. The new board includes well-known film personalities such as actors Preity Zinta, Suniel Shetty, Pankaj Tripathi, and Prasenjit Chatterjee, among others.
The list also includes actor Roopali Ganguly and actor-producer Pallavi Joshi. Joshi’s husband Vivek Agnihotri was a member of the previous CBFC Board.
In exercise of the powers conferred under Cinematograph Act the Central Government has reconstituted the Central Board of Film Certification @shashidigital pic.twitter.com/cjY2lyhCIP
The Board will also have writer-columnist Yatindra Mishra, filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda, film and art critic Vinod Anupam, Marathi actor and writer Nishigandha Wad, writer and activist Ramesh Patange, and Telugu film producer Supriya Yarlagadda, singer and BJP politician Hans Raj Hans, filmmaker Priyadarshan, Indian music composer Ricky Kej, film writer and director Abhishek Jain, and actor Manoj Joshi.
Responding to the development, officials said that there is good diversity across regions, with several younger and progressive filmmakers having been brought in the new Board.
Indian theatre director and former Director of the National School of Drama was appointed to the board. He was a member of the previous board as well.
The 18-member board has been reconstituted under the powers granted by the Cinematograph Act of 1952. It will serve for three years or until further notice.
In a notification, the I&B Ministry said that, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 2024, the Central Government has reconstituted the board with immediate effect for a period of three years or until further orders.
The reconstitution of the CBFC Board was long pending. The previous CBFC Board was last reconstituted on August 1, 2017. The Cinematograph Rules state that the Board should be reconstituted every three years, even as it highlights that the term of members shall continue till new members are appointed.
The 149th meeting of the CBFC, also colloquially known as the Censor Board, took place on August 29 after a gap of six years. This meeting was the first after Shashi Shekhar Vempati took over as CBFC Chairperson.
Under the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules 2024, the CBFC board must meet once every quarter. In the last meeting, Board members had requested a list of those who consistently headed Revising Committees in recent years to review films.
The virtual meeting also discussed recent films that sparked controversies, strategies for moving forward, and industry outreach programmes.
The Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 2024, notified in supersession of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983, had also come up for discussion, and a request was put forth for further clarification on the difference between age-based certification of 16 years and 18 years.
The CBFC board is also supposed to deliberate on difficult decisions related to its functioning.
Amrita Nayak Dutta writes on defence and national security as part of the national bureau of The Indian Express. In the past, Amrita has extensively reported on the media industry and broadcasting matters, urban affairs, bureaucracy and government policies. In the last 14 years of her career, she has worked in newspapers as well as in the online media space and is well versed with the functioning of both newsrooms. Amrita has worked in the northeast, Mumbai and Delhi. She has travelled extensively across the country, including in far-flung border areas, to bring detailed reports from the ground and has written investigative reports on media and defence. She has been working for The Indian Express since January 2023. ... Read More
