Kamal Hassan, Gautam Ghosh included in Shyam Benegal-led Censor Board panel

New Delhi, Jan 14: Actor-filmmaker Kamal Hassan and director Gautam Ghosh were today included in the Shyam Benegal committee that has been set up by the government to holistically look into the functioning of controversy ridden Censor Board making it a six-member body.

Sources said Kamal Hassan and filmmaker Gautam Ghosh have been included in the committee.

The I&B ministry had set up the panel on January 1 to take a relook at the functioning of the Board.

Benegal and other members of the committee, including filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, adman Piyush Pandey and film journalist Bhawana Somayaa had last week met Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley in Mumbai, where Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore was also present.

Jaitley had last week said that film certification guidelines needed contemporary interpretation and should be as non-discretionary as possible.

Earlier, before the panel was set up, Jaitley had made his desire known that he would like the Certification Board to be "controversy-free" and added that he had discussed the matter with some experts as to what should be the future role of this body.

PTI