The Central Board of Film Certification has a new look. Eighteen members, including actors Preity Zinta, Suniel Shetty, and Pankaj Tripathi, have been appointed to the reconstituted panel for a three-year term. Joining them on the board are actors Manoj Joshi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Pallavi Joshi, and Rupali Ganguly, filmmaker Priyadarshan, and Grammy-winning musician Ricky Kej. The remaining appointees are Vinod Anupam, Abhishek Jain, Hansraj Hans, Supriya Yarlagadda, Yatindra Mishra, Neela Madhab Panda, Nishigandha Wad, Waman Kendre, and Ramesh Patange.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting made the announcement under Section 3(1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, read with Rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 2024. The new panel took effect immediately, timing that feels notable given how often film certification has become entangled with public and creative controversy of late.
According to an official, the reshuffle had been overdue, with several members’ terms from the previous 12-person board, last constituted in 2017, having already lapsed. The board’s core mandate and the rules it operates under, however, remain the same.
Few cases illustrate the certification process’s rough edges better than Satluj, the Diljit Dosanjh film formerly called Punjab 95. First sent to the censor board back in 2022, it sat in limbo for nearly three years while makers were asked to carry out as many as 127 cuts. When an uncut version briefly appeared on ZEE5 under its new title in July, Indian viewers had barely two days to watch it before the film was taken down again, a reminder of how certification battles can shadow a project long after it’s finished.
It isn’t an isolated case. Akshay Kumar’s Welcome To The Jungle only got its UA 16+ certificate after 18 rounds of edits, while Jana Nayagan ran into its own certification delays and even ended up in court.
Meanwhile, Salman Khan’s Maatrubhumi: May War Rest In Peace, originally titled Battle Of Galwan, hasn’t even reached the CBFC yet. The film, built around the 2020 India-China military standoff, is reportedly held up by concerns from the Ministry of Defence, particularly given the recent thaw in relations between the two countries. Earlier reports suggested the makers may need to strip out all references to China just to get the film cleared.
