Pahlaj Nihalani has been removed as the chief of Central Board of Film Certification on Friday. Noted lyricist Prasoon Joshi will take charge as the new chief of central film certification body.

The news came as a surprise considering filmmakers Prakash Jha and Chandra Prakash Diwedi were allegedly in the running as the top contenders for the ‘controversial’ post.

Pahlaj has been in the news ever since he took charge of the board. He developed an ill well among the industry counterparts for issuing unnecessary cuts in films, bizarre diktats, be it muting out expletives, asking A-lister actors to not smoke onsrcreen and refusing to issue the certification to numerous films.

Nihalani courted a huge controversy in 2016 when he asked Udta Punjab makers to induce 94 Cuts in the film. The case was dragged to High Court which later the CBFC board later lost.

With Smriti Irani taking the charge as the new I&B minister, this move has come at the right time, as the angst against the ex-CBFC chief was paramount in past few months.

Prasoon, on the other hand, has been involved in the filmmaking aspect domain via dialogue writing, script writing and has penned down popular songs like Meri Maa, Rang De Basanti etc.

Both Pahlaj and Prasoon are yet to confirm on the development.

Masti ki Paatshala in hindsight under Prasoon’s regime!?