Shashi Shekhar Vempati, who until 2022 served as CEO of Prasar Bharati, has been appointed chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, succeeding Prasoon Joshi. Joshi has now taken over as chairman of Prasar Bharati.

Vempati had headed Prasar Bharati from 2017 to 2022 and later held roles with the University Grants Commission, BARC, and the Department of Science and Technology. More recently, he has been associated with AI4India, a platform focused on promoting India’s domestic AI ecosystem.

After graduating from IIT Bombay, he worked with Infosys for 16 years. He then joined a digital media start-up called Niti Digital where he was chief digital officer from 2013 to 2014, and later CEO. He also worked for India Votes, a “centre-right digital news media, data and analytics platform”, and India272, a “public database” of electoral data. Both these platforms were involved with Modi’s Mission 272 campaign for the 2014 election. 

Vempati subsequently received the “Dataquest Pathbreaker award” from Dataquest magazine for his “outstanding role” in Modi’s campaign. He was made CEO of Rajya Sabha TV in 2017 and held the position for nearly two years. He was also appointed a member of the Prasar Bharati board. In June 2017 he was made CEO of Prasar Bharati while retaining his position at Rajya Sabha TV.

Newslaundry had detailed his tenure here.

Joshi’s tenure at the CBFC saw a major digitisation push. During his time in office, the board’s censorship practices drew attention for extending scrutiny to political references and religious themes in films. 

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