Diljit Dosanjh charged ₹1 for Satluj, says director Honey Trehan: ‘Shameful if I charge to play Jaswant Singh Khalra’

Director Honey Trehan highlighted that without Diljit Dosanjh, Satluj, depicting human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra's story, would not exist.

Diljit Dosanjh's Satluj first got caught in a certification row with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), and then the film was quietly removed from Zee5 within 48 hours of its release. But amid the film's struggle, one thing remains clear: Diljit was committed to the project from day one. In a recent interaction, the film's director Honey Trehan spoke about the actor's commitment to the film and revealed that he charged only Re 1 for it.

Diljit Dosanjh in Honey Trehan's Satluj.

Diljit charged Re 1 for Satluj

Speaking about Diljit, Trehan told The Print, “Had Diljit not been there, this film would not have existed. I wanted an actor who knows that world. I was keen on casting a Sardar because if I put a Bollywood actor in the film, the narrative would suddenly become, ‘This actor is playing a Sardar.’ That would’ve been an injustice to Khalra Sahab’s journey and the people whose pain this story carries,” he said.

Satluj is based on the life of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a bank clerk who became a leading human rights activist in Punjab in the mid-1990s after his investigation into the cremation of 25,000 people in the state between 1984 and 1994. Khalra was abducted and murdered in police custody in 1995, as per the court judgment.

Trehan shared that Diljit's image immediately came to his mind when he thought of Khalra. In 2021, he met the singer-actor for “30 minutes" and shared his research documents with him. The director recalled that Dosanjh was stunned upon seeing Khalra's photograph and decided not to charge a penny for the film. “He stood up from his chair, touched the script to his forehead and said, ‘Waheguru’, 'How can I charge to play someone like Khalra? It will be shameful.’ However, when the director insisted, the singer simply said that if he wanted to pay him for contractual purposes, he could pay him just Re 1.

Diljit was incredibly supportive on Satluj set

In another interaction with Mid-day, Trehan shared that Diljit was incredibly supportive throughout the film's shoot. "There were days when he reported at six in the morning, and I couldn't take his first shot until four in the evening because schedules had gone haywire. I kept apologising. Every single time, he would tell me, 'Paaji, no problem. Whatever you're doing, you're doing for the film. I'm here to support the film'," he said.