Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi, Suniel Shetty among 18 members of reconstituted Censor Board

The Government of India has reconstituted the with immediate effect, appointing 18 members to the board. The panel includes actors, filmmakers, musicians and other personalities from the entertainment and cultural sectors.

Among the prominent names on the reconstituted board are actors Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi, Suniel Shetty, Roopali Ganguly, Pallavi Joshi and Prosenjit Chatterjee. Filmmaker Priyadarshan and Grammy-winning composer Ricky Kej are also part of the panel.

18 members of the reconstituted CBFC

The newly reconstituted CBFC comprises:

What the CBFC does

The CBFC, also commonly referred to as the Censor Board, examines films before they are publicly exhibited in India. It operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Cinematograph Act, 1952, applicable certification rules and government guidelines.

Depending on the content and its assessment, films can be granted different certification categories. These include U for unrestricted public exhibition, UA with age-related caution, A for adult audiences and S for a specialised class of viewers. The 2024 certification rules also introduced age markers under the UA category, including UA 7+, UA 13+ and UA 16+.

The certification process involves Examining Committees, while Revising Committees can review a film when producers or the board are not satisfied with the Examining Committee's decision. The issue of how these Revising Committees are constituted came up during the CBFC's August 29 meeting, which was the board's first meeting in six years. Members sought details about those who had consistently headed such committees in recent years.

The CBFC has its headquarters in Mumbai and operates through nine regional offices, including those in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram. Regional offices are assisted by advisory panels whose members are drawn from different walks of life.

The certification process has also been digitised through the CBFC's e-Cinepramaan system, which was introduced in 2017. The Ministry says the system was designed to make certification more transparent and time-bound while allowing producers to track the progress of their applications.