Grammy Winner Ricky Kej Joins CBFC, Advocates for Age-Based Markers

5:10 AM ETDeveloping

Entertainment Desk

In Short: Grammy Award-winning musician Ricky Kej has joined the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and supports the new age-based markers for films, emphasizing that protecting children does not mean sanitizing cinema for adults.

Grammy Award-winning musician Ricky Kej has joined the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and supports the new age-based markers for films, emphasizing that protecting children does not mean sanitizing cinema for adults. Kej, who is part of the newly reconstituted CBFC, told NDTV, 'Protecting children does not mean sanitising cinema for adults.

The CBFC began issuing UA certificates with the new age-based markers in October 2024, marking a shift from previous certification guidelines. These markers advise parents or guardians to consider whether children below the specified ages should be allowed to watch a film. For Kej, the expanded age classifications could help reduce the need for cuts while giving parents greater clarity about what their children watch.

The CBFC’s certification guidelines require the board to ensure that anti-social activities such as violence are not glorified or justified, the modus operandi of criminals or other material likely to incite an offence is not depicted, and scenes encouraging, justifying or glamourising drug addiction are not shown. The move marks a change from the earlier certification guidelines, which required the CBFC to ensure that scenes tending to 'encourage, justify or glamourise drug addiction' were not shown, but did not prescribe such a specific on-screen warning.

The Centre reconstituted the CBFC on Wednesday, bringing actors Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi, Suniel Shetty, Pallavi Joshi, and Prosenjit Chatterjee, and filmmaker Priyadarshan among others, onto its new 18-member board. The CBFC’s new guidelines now include a ‘U’ certificate, which allows unrestricted public exhibition, and an ‘A’ certificate, which restricts a film’s public exhibition to adults.

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Sources

The Indian Expresslink