Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Panjab '95 retitled Satluj, finally releases after 3-year-long series of postponements

Diljit Dosanjh's Satluj, based on human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, faced a long battle with CBFC certification and its India release.

Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Panjab '95 is now retitled Satluj and has finally seen its day of release. The film dropped quietly on an OTT platform on Friday. Directed by Honey Trehan, Satluj was delayed after running into trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). It is based on activist Jaswant Singh Khalra's life and death, was supposed to be released globally last year in February. However, the release was indefinitely postponed. Now, the film is available to stream on Zee5.

Satluj is based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, and stars Diljit Dosanjh.

Satluj finally gets a release

“Some stories refuse to stay buried. Watch ‘Satluj’ streaming now only on Zee5,” read the caption of the new post from the official Instagram account of the OTT platform. The post tagged the Instagram accounts of Diljit along with co-stars Arjun Rampal and Surinder Vicky. Take a look:

Satluj, directed by Honey Trehan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala, also stars Varun Badola, and Geetika Vidya Ohlan. The film has been mired in controversies for almost three years, ever since it was submitted for certification to the CBFC.

This is the second time the film's title has seen a change. Satluj, in 2022, was titled to Panjab '95, which was previously titled Ghalughara after the Ghalughara massacre. The film was submitted to the Central Board of Film Certification. However, the CBFC made 120 cuts in the film and objected to the title. Eventually, the apex Sikh religious body, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), intervened, and the CBFC relented with the cuts but asked the title to still be changed. Eventually, the film was rechristened Panjab '95. The film's trailer was launched on YouTube the same year but was removed barely a day later.

That was not all. The film was set to get its world premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2023 but was removed from the lineup just a day before the premiere date. A source told Variety that there are 'political forces at play' in the film being pulled from Toronto as Canada has the second largest Sikh population in the world after India. The festival organisers never confirmed or denied this.

What is Satluj about?

Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights activist from Punjab, fought against alleged fake encounters of Sikh youths by Punjab Police during militancy. He investigated the mass cremation of thousands of unidentified bodies in Punjab between 1984 and 1994.

In 1995, he mysteriously disappeared, and a decade later, in 2005, four police officers were arrested for his alleged abduction and murder. His life and death is a controversial part of the state's sensitive history, particularly the connections with militancy. In 2007, the Punjab and Haryana High Court extended their initial seven-year sentence to life imprisonment.