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:
- Preity Zinta
- Suniel Shetty
- Rupali Ganguly
- Priyadarshan
- Pallavi Joshi
- Pankaj Tripathi
- Prosenjit Chatterjee
- Vinod Anupam
- Manoj Joshi
- Abhishek Jain
- Ricky Kej
- Hansraj Hans
- Supriya Yarlagadda
- Yatindra Mishra
- Neela Madhab Panda
- Nishigandha Wad
- Waman Kendre
- 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"The reconstitution had been pending for some time, with some members of the previous board no longer active and the terms of some others having passed away," an MoIB official told NDTV.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.
