“Satluj,” the Honey Trehan-directed drama inspired by the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, began streaming globally on ZEE5 Global on July 3, in full and without cuts, three years after the film first ran into trouble with India’s censor board.
Produced by RSVP and MacGuffin Pictures, the social drama stars Diljit Dosanjh alongside Arjun Rampal, Kanwaljit Singh, Suvinder Vicky and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan. It traces Khalra’s decades-long pursuit of justice for more than 25,000 people who disappeared during Punjab’s insurgency-era crackdowns, and the personal cost of his fight against a system determined to suppress the truth.
The project has carried three names on its way to release. It was originally titled “Ghallughara,” a historic term for the massacres of Sikhs in 1746, 1762 and 1984. When RSVP applied for certification from India’s Central Board of Film Certification in late 2022, the six-month process ended with the film cleared for 21 cuts and a mandated title change to “Punjab ’95.” RSVP appealed that ruling in the Bombay High Court. Around the same time, the film was withdrawn from its planned gala premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival; a source told Variety at the time that political factors were involved in that decision.
