Days after its premiere in India, Honey Trehan’s human rights drama Satluj, starring Diljit Dosanjh, has been cancelled. The film, which is about human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, has been at the heart of a censorship dispute.
On July 3, it debuted on the streaming platform Zee5. Two days later, it was removed. “In light of current developments, Satluj will be unavailable in India until further notice,” Zee5 said in a social media statement.
Zee5 stated that it supported the film and is “committed to exploring every appropriate avenue through due process to bring the film back to our audiences,” although it did not go into detail about the “current developments” it mentioned.
Zee5 added, “Satluj may have paused,” in an Instagram post. I’m grateful for your amazing love. We intend to revive it shortly.
The film centers on Khalra’s investigation of the thousands of Sikhs who were wrongfully killed and vanished by Punjab police between 1984 and 1994. In September 1995, Khalra vanished. Ten years later, six Punjabi police officers were found guilty of kidnapping and killing him.
MacGuffin Pictures, a company started by Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey, and Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP Movies produced Satluj. The initial title of the movie was Ghallughara, a Punjabi term that alludes to historical Sikh killings. Prior to its brief release under the title Satluj, it was known as Punjab ’95.
It made headlines prior to its release due to difficulties obtaining certification. Trehan informed Deadline that the Central Board of Film Classification in India required multiple trims and a change to the film’s original title after it was filed in late 2022. The process was delayed for a long time because the filmmakers resisted.
The film’s producers withdrew it from the Toronto International Film Festival in advance of its 2023 international debut. It still hadn’t received a certificate in 2025. “There’s pressure on my producers to write off the film, coming from government officials, from central government officials,” Trehan told Deadline during a private Cannes showing that year.
The Indian Express reported on Trehan’s response to Satluj being pulled: At approximately 8:15 p.m. on Sunday, I learned that Satluj had been removed from ZEE5 in India. Right now, I’m at a lost. I’m not sure how to respond to this development.
The movie is still accessible outside of India, Zee5 continued.
