New Delhi: The Centre Wednesday reconstituted the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) more than six years after the three-year tenure of its previous panel ran out, bringing actors Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi, Suniel Shetty, Pallavi Joshi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Grammy-winning musician Ricky Kej, and Odia filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda among others, onto the 18-member board. The reconstitution comes weeks after the CBFC held its first board meeting in six years August 29.
Under the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 2024, the board is required to meet at least once every quarter. The new board, headed by CBFC chairperson Shashi Shekhar Vempati, has been constituted with immediate effect for three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. The new panel also includes filmmaker Priyadarshan, film critic Vinod Anupam, actor Manoj Joshi, filmmaker Abhishek Jain, singer and former parliamentarian Hans Raj Hans, producer Supriya Yarlagadda, poet and writer Yatindra Mishra, actor Roopali Ganguly, and actor Nishigandha Wad.
Theatre director Waman Kendre and writer and RSS pracharak Ramesh Patange are the only two members of the previous board to have been retained in the newly constituted panel. The CBFC was last reconstituted August 11, 2017, for a three-year term, which ran till 2020. Members of that board, however, continued beyond their stipulated tenure because provisions allowed them to remain in office until their successors were appointed.
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