The Crossbill News Desk
The Centre has reconstituted the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) with an 18-member board featuring prominent names from the film industry, alongside political figures and cultural commentators, nearly a decade after the previous board was constituted.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced the new board on Wednesday (September 16), with the members appointed for three years or until further orders, The Indian Express reported.
Among those appointed are actors Preity Zinta, Suniel Shetty, Pankaj Tripathi and Prasenjit Chatterjee, along with actor Rupali Ganguly, singer and BJP politician Hans Raj Hans, actor-producer Pallavi Joshi and filmmaker Priyadarshan. The board also includes 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, Telugu producer Supriya Yarlagadda, music composer Ricky Kej, film writer-director Abhishek Jain and actor Manoj Joshi.
Ganguly joined the BJP in 2024, while Hans Raj Hans served as the party’s MP from North-West Delhi between 2019 and 2024. Pallavi Joshi, meanwhile, was among the producers of The Kashmir Files, the 2022 film directed and co-produced by her husband Vivek Agnihotri. Agnihotri himself had served on the previous CBFC board.
The reconstitution comes after a prolonged gap. The CBFC was last formally reconstituted in 2017, despite the Cinematograph Rules providing for the board to be reconstituted every three years. The rules also state that members of an existing board continue in office until new members are appointed.
The composition of the new board comes at a time when the certification body has faced scrutiny over its handling of films and other screen content. Recent cases have included restrictions or delays involving Honey Trehan’s Satluj, a Billie Eilish concert film and H. Vinoth’s Jana Nayagan, starring actor-turned-Tamil Nadu chief minister C. Joseph Vijay. The CBFC also withdrew orders denying certification to the Punjabi film Chardikala following the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana high court.
Earlier in May, former Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati was appointed chairperson of the CBFC. The new board’s arrival also follows a rare CBFC meeting after six years, during which members reportedly raised questions about the composition and transparency of film Revising Committees.
The inclusion of Joshi has also revived discussion around the political and cultural debates surrounding The Kashmir Files. Critics had questioned the film’s treatment of the Kashmir issue, while videos from screenings in 2022 showed groups of viewers making anti-Muslim remarks and calls for violence.
The changes at the film certification body coincide with a separate push within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for greater regulation of content on streaming platforms.
According to The Indian Express, the RSS has constituted an informal group comprising former vice-chancellors, pracharaks and people associated with education and culture to recommend measures concerning what it describes as “cultural pollution” on OTT platforms.
“This is an informal group and a proposal will be made which will ultimately be submitted to the Union Ministry of Culture and other stakeholders in the central government to deal with the dirt coming out on OTT platforms. We need something like a censor board to deal with this cultural pollution affecting our families and the young generation in particular,” a source in the RSS told the newspaper.
The initiative follows RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s repeated criticism of OTT content. In his October 2024 Vijayadashami address in Nagpur, Bhagwat had said, “The kind of things shown on OTT platforms are so disgusting that talking about it too would be indecent… There is a need to regulate it through law because it is also one of the big reasons for moral corruption,” the RSS chief had then said, blaming the OTT platforms for alleged “perversion in society”.
Taken together, the reconstitution of the CBFC and the RSS-backed initiative on OTT content come amid renewed debate over the regulation of films and digital entertainment in India, with questions around censorship, cultural standards and the role of state institutions in determining permissible content.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry announced the new board on Wednesday (September 16), with the members appointed for three years or until further orders, The Indian Express reported.
Among those appointed are actors Preity Zinta, Suniel Shetty, Pankaj Tripathi and Prasenjit Chatterjee, along with actor Rupali Ganguly, singer and BJP politician Hans Raj Hans, actor-producer Pallavi Joshi and filmmaker Priyadarshan. The board also includes 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, Telugu producer Supriya Yarlagadda, music composer Ricky Kej, film writer-director Abhishek Jain and actor Manoj Joshi.
Ganguly joined the BJP in 2024, while Hans Raj Hans served as the party’s MP from North-West Delhi between 2019 and 2024. Pallavi Joshi, meanwhile, was among the producers of The Kashmir Files, the 2022 film directed and co-produced by her husband Vivek Agnihotri. Agnihotri himself had served on the previous CBFC board.
The reconstitution comes after a prolonged gap. The CBFC was last formally reconstituted in 2017, despite the Cinematograph Rules providing for the board to be reconstituted every three years. The rules also state that members of an existing board continue in office until new members are appointed.
The composition of the new board comes at a time when the certification body has faced scrutiny over its handling of films and other screen content. Recent cases have included restrictions or delays involving Honey Trehan’s Satluj, a Billie Eilish concert film and H. Vinoth’s Jana Nayagan, starring actor-turned-Tamil Nadu chief minister C. Joseph Vijay. The CBFC also withdrew orders denying certification to the Punjabi film Chardikala following the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana high court.
Earlier in May, former Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati was appointed chairperson of the CBFC. The new board’s arrival also follows a rare CBFC meeting after six years, during which members reportedly raised questions about the composition and transparency of film Revising Committees.
The inclusion of Joshi has also revived discussion around the political and cultural debates surrounding The Kashmir Files. Critics had questioned the film’s treatment of the Kashmir issue, while videos from screenings in 2022 showed groups of viewers making anti-Muslim remarks and calls for violence.
The changes at the film certification body coincide with a separate push within the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for greater regulation of content on streaming platforms.
According to The Indian Express, the RSS has constituted an informal group comprising former vice-chancellors, pracharaks and people associated with education and culture to recommend measures concerning what it describes as “cultural pollution” on OTT platforms.
“This is an informal group and a proposal will be made which will ultimately be submitted to the Union Ministry of Culture and other stakeholders in the central government to deal with the dirt coming out on OTT platforms. We need something like a censor board to deal with this cultural pollution affecting our families and the young generation in particular,” a source in the RSS told the newspaper.
The initiative follows RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s repeated criticism of OTT content. In his October 2024 Vijayadashami address in Nagpur, Bhagwat had said, “The kind of things shown on OTT platforms are so disgusting that talking about it too would be indecent… There is a need to regulate it through law because it is also one of the big reasons for moral corruption,” the RSS chief had then said, blaming the OTT platforms for alleged “perversion in society”.
Taken together, the reconstitution of the CBFC and the RSS-backed initiative on OTT content come amid renewed debate over the regulation of films and digital entertainment in India, with questions around censorship, cultural standards and the role of state institutions in determining permissible content.
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