Shyam Benegal Committee on Film Certification

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting Arun Jaitley, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore and I&B Secretary Shri Sunil Arora held wide ranging interaction with the recently constituted Shyam Benegal Committee in Mumbai.

The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting on January 1st, 2016, constituted an Expert Committee under the chairmanship of Shri Shyam Benegal to recommend broad guidelines for certification of films by the Central Board of Film Certification, CBFC.

Members of the Committee – noted filmmaker Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra, advertising & communication expert Piyush Pandey, veteran film journalist Ms. Bhawana Somayaa, NFDC Managing Director Ms. Nina Lath Gupta and Joint Secretary, Films, Sanjay Murthy were present.

Shyam Benegal Committee will study the existing procedure being followed by CBFC for certification of original films, their dubbed versions as well as recertification of films for screening on other media platforms.

The Committee will also study various directives of courts as well as notifications issued by other Government agencies like Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Animal Welfare Board of India etc, which have a bearing on the process of film certification.

The staffing pattern of CBFC would also be looked into in an effort to recommend a framework which would provide transparent, user friendly services.