Other new additions to the CBFC's new 18-member crew are Bollywood faces Pankaj Tripathi and Preity Zinta, as well as Grammy-nominated musician Ricky Kej.

Other new additions to the CBFC's new 18-member crew are Bollywood faces Pankaj Tripathi and Preity Zinta, as well as Grammy-nominated musician Ricky Kej.

Other new additions to the CBFC's new 18-member crew are Bollywood faces Pankaj Tripathi and Preity Zinta, as well as Grammy-nominated musician Ricky Kej.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) now has a new 18-member team after a major overhaul, with Bollywood stars such as Pankaj Tripathi and Preity Zinta headlining the new pack.

Notably, two of these new additions to the film  certification body are two icons from the beloved Hera Pheri franchise, which is not only a cult classic in its own right, but also inspired hundreds of memes across the ages.

The first is Suniel Shetty, who plays Shyam—one of the three central characters in the comedy franchise, alongside Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar.

The second is Priyadarshan, who adapted Hera Pheri in 2000 from his own Malayalam classic, Ramji Rao Speaking (1989). He followed this up with a second film, Phir Hera Pheri (2006), after which a third part ran into issues over the years, and is not likely to see the light of day, as per the filmmaker himself.

The overhaul was notified by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MoIB) on Wednesday under Section 3(1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, read with Rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 2024.

The notification added that the 18-member team will be appointed immediately for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

The full list of the CBFC's new crew across cinema, television, and music are as follows:

  1. Preity Zinta
  2. Suniel Shetty
  3. Rupali Ganguly
  4. Priyadarshan
  5. Pallavi Joshi 
  6. Pankaj Tripathi
  7. Prosenjit Chatterjee
  8. Vinod Anupam
  9. Manoj Joshi
  10. Abhishek Jain
  11. Ricky Kej
  12. Hansraj Hans
  13. Supriya Yarlagadda
  14. Yatindra Mishra
  15. Neela Madhab Panda
  16. Nishigandha Wad
  17. Waman Kendre
  18. Ramesh Patange

Of these, Waman Kendre and Ramesh Patange are the only two members from the previous board. Notably, five of the appointed members are women.

"The reconstitution had been pending for some time, with some members of the previous board no longer active and the terms of some others having passed away," an MoIB official told NDTV.

However, the MoIB is yet to announce an appointment to the chairperson’s post, as the Wednesday notification only mentioned the overhaul, and did not specify members' roles.