The central government on Friday set up a committee to revamp the Central Board of Film Certification. The panel will be headed by filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who said, “I am supposed to be part of a committee to look into the problems related to film certification. The ministry had spoken to me a few days ago. My views on censorship are very clear – I am against the scissors. I don’t know anything yet about the agenda or the scope of the committee yet.”

The panel, which would submit its report in two months, includes filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, ad guru Piyush Pandey and film journalist Bhawana Somaaya. The move to set up the committee comes after Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley had said on Tuesday that it was time to re-examine the functioning of the censor board. He had also said that he wanted the body to be controversy-free.

The CBFC, currently headed by film producer Pahlaj Nihalani, has been embroiled in many controversies in recent months. It bleeped out swear words from several Hindi and English movies, ordered vast cuts to the adult-rated sex comedy Mastizaade, made three unnecessary cuts to the squeaky clean Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo, reportedly asked for a kiss between Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor in Tamasha to be severely curtailed, and most recently trimmed two liplocks in the new James Bond adventure Spectre.