NEW DELHI: Renowned lyricist and senior adman Prasoon Joshi has been appointed chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification with immediate effect.
An official order said Joshi was being appointed chairperson of the CBFC in an honorary capacity from 11 August 2017 for a period of three years or until further orders, whichever is earlier in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Cinematograph Act 1952 read with rule 3 of the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules 1983.
This marks the exit of filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani who was embroiled in several controversies during his tenure.
Joshi is the CEO of McCann World group India and Chairman (Asia Pacific), a subsidiary of global marketing firm McCann Erickson.
Prasoon has received the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award three times, in 2007 and 2008 and again in 2014 for the Hindi movie Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. He has also received the National Film Award for Best Lyrics twice, for his work in Taare Zameen Par (2007), and Chittagong (2013).He was awarded Padma Shri by the Government in 2015 for his contributions towards the field of Arts, Literature and Advertising.
Born on 16 September 1971, he started his career with Ogilvy & Mather in Delhi. He worked there for 10 years and eventually became the executive creative director of the Mumbai office. In early 2002, he joined McCann-Erickson as executive vice-president and national creative director. By 2006, he was regional creative director for South and South East Asia. In December 2006 he was promoted to executive chairman for McCann Worldgroup India and regional creative director for Asia Pacific
Joshi created advertising campaigns for NDTV India (Sach dikhate hain hum), Saffola (Abhi to main Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.jawan hoon) LG, Marico, Perfetti (Alpenliebe, Chlormint), and the Cannes-winning Thanda matlab Coca-Cola campaign with Aamir Khan. His Happydent television commercial was listed by Bob Garfield of AdvertisingAge as one of his personal choices for the Cannes Gold in 2007, and it was chosen by a Gunn Report poll as one of the 20 best ads of the 21st century.
He also wrote the lyrics for CNN IBN's advertising jingle "India Rising’ and Coke's Ummeed wali dhoop.
In cinema, he made his debut as film lyricist with Rajkumar Santoshi's Lajja, a critical and commercial success, and this soon led to Yash Chopra's Hum Tum and a string of highly successful Bollywood films like Fanaa, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Black and Delhi 6. With Rang De Basanti (2006), he also became a dialogue writer.
He won the Filmfare Best Lyricist Award for "Chand Sifarish" from the film Fanaa in 2007 and for "Maa" from Taare Zameen Par in 2008. He has won the prestigious National Award twice. The first for his work in Taare Zameen Par and the second one in 2013 for Chittagong.
He had also written the script for the award-winning 2014 film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
He started writing early in life and published his first book at age 17, Main Aur Woh, a 'conversation with himself', inspired by Frederich Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra. Two more books followed, establishing him as an author.
His latest book, Sunshine Lanes, a collection of his songs, was launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in January 2013.
