The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has handed the Central Board of Film Certification a fresh set of faces. A notification dated September 16, 2026, reconstitutes the CBFC with immediate effect, and the new board stays in place for three years or until the government decides otherwise, whichever comes first.

The order draws its authority from Section 3(1) of the Cinematograph Act, 1952, read alongside Rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 2024. That's the legal spine every certification decision in the country hangs off, so a reconstitution isn't a small bureaucratic footnote. It resets who gets to decide what Indian audiences see on screen, and for how long.

Who's on it

Eighteen names make up the new board, pulled from cinema, music, literature and the broader arts. The list: Vinod Anupam, Manoj Joshi, Abhishek Jain, Ricky Kej, Priyadarshan, Suniel Shetty, Hansraj Hans, Supriya Yarlagadda, Yatindra Mishra, Rupali Ganguly, Preity Zinta, Nila Madhab Panda, Pankaj Tripathi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Pallavi Joshi, Nishigandha Wad, Waman Kendre and Ramesh Patange.

The entertainment-industry names carry the most obvious weight. Suniel Shetty and Preity Zinta bring decades of acting experience to a body that's spent years fielding complaints about being either too strict or too lax, depending on who's shouting. Priyadarshan and Nila Madhab Panda arrive as filmmakers who've actually sat on the other side of the certification table, waiting on a censor call for their own work. Pankaj Tripathi's presence adds another actor with a long OTT and theatrical résumé. Grammy winner Ricky Kej represents music. Rupali Ganguly, known as much for television as for direction credits, and Bengali star Prosenjit Chatterjee round out a list that spans language industries rather than sitting Hindi-cinema-heavy.

Bollywood Hungama reported that these 18 members will specifically constitute the Revising Committee of the CBFC, the panel films go to when a producer appeals an examining committee's call. That's a meaningful detail. It suggests this particular group won't be the first port of call for every film submitted for certification, but the one filmmakers approach when they think the first verdict got it wrong.

Three years is the standard tenure window the notification sets, though the government reserves the right to end it sooner. Past CBFC boards have run into friction over cuts, delays and inconsistent calls between regional and central benches, and every reconstitution comes with the same unspoken question hanging over it: does the new lineup certify differently than the last one did?

For now there's no word on who chairs this board or how quickly it starts hearing appeals. Producers with films stuck in the certification pipeline will be watching to see how fast the Revising Committee gets to work, and whether this set of names shifts the board's temperament on cuts and content warnings that filmmakers have grumbled about for years.