Mumbai: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has been reconstituted with an 18-member panel featuring several prominent names from the Indian film industry.
Actors Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi and Suniel Shetty are among those appointed to the new board, which will be headed by chairperson Shashi Shekhar Vempati.
The panel includes Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi, Suniel Shetty, Pallavi Joshi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Rupali Ganguly, Priyadarshan and Ricky Kej, among others.
It also features filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda, actor Manoj Joshi, Abhishek Jain, Supriya Yarlagadda, film critic Vinod Anupam, poet and writer Yatindra Mishra, Nishigandha Wad, and singer and former parliamentarian Hansraj Hans.
The newly constituted board has retained only two members from the previous panel — theatre director Waman Kendre and writer Ramesh Patange.
The previous CBFC board was constituted in August 2017 for a three-year term.
However, its members continued to serve beyond 2020 as the board was not reconstituted during that period.
The provisions allowed them to remain in office until their successors were appointed.
The outgoing panel comprised Vidya Balan, Vivek Agnihotri, former footballer Mihir Bhutia, Gautami Tadimalla, Vani Tripathi Tikoo, Jeevitha Rajasekhar, T S Nagabharana and Naresh Chandra Lal, along with Kendre and Patange.
Congratulations and welcome to the new Board Members of @CBFC_Bharat https://t.co/FkCAKRk3Vf
— Shashi Shekhar Vempati शशि शेखर वेम्पटि (@shashidigital) September 16, 2026
The CBFC has come under scrutiny in recent months over its approach to film certification and cuts.
One such instance was Tom Holland and Zendaya’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which received a UA 13 certificate for its India release in July.
“In compliance with the Cinematograph Act and Rules, this eight-second scene was found to be inappropriate for children below the age of 13 and was excised,” a source was quoted as saying by ANI.
The CBFC has also faced criticism over decisions involving film certifications and release delays.
Earlier this year, H Vinoth’s Tamil film Jana Nayagan, starring Vijay, Mamitha Baiju, Bobby Deol and Pooja Hegde, became the centre of attention after it failed to release as scheduled during the Pongal period in January.
The film’s release was postponed at the last minute after the examining committee referred it to a revising committee following a complaint by one of its members.
The filmmakers later failed to get relief from the courts and had to wait until July for the film’s theatrical release. In April, Jana Nayagan was also leaked online in HD quality, leading to several arrests.