Indian authorities are scrutinizing whether a film depicting a separatist insurgency in Punjab during the 1980s and early 1990s is suitable for public viewing.
Titled Satluj after a river in Punjab, the film claims to portray the true story of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a human rights activist tortured and killed by police in 1995 for investigating thousands of disappearances and extrajudicial killings during a brutal government crackdown on the separatist movement.
Originally titled Punjab 95, the film was blocked by India’s censor board for three years. The board mandated a title change and demanded nearly 130 cuts before permitting a theatrical release.
The filmmakers rejected the cuts and instead released Satluj on the ZEE5 streaming platform on July 3, only for it to be removed 48 hours later on security grounds.
Here is an overview of the controversy.
What is Satluj About?
Written and directed by Honey Trehan, the 163-minute biopic chronicles the life and killing of Khalra, a bank employee in Amritsar who begins investigating the disappearance of a friend and the friend’s mother, ultimately uncovering thousands of similar cases.
The disappearances—and presumed killings—were part of a wider crackdown by Indian security forces to crush a separatist movement seeking to establish Khalistan, an independent Sikh state in Punjab.
Khalra’s investigation alleged that police secretly cremated nearly 25,000 disappeared individuals without informing families or maintaining official records.
He persisted despite threats and warnings until he was abducted from outside his home on September 6, 1995. He was presumed murdered, though his body was never found. He was 42.
Following Khalra’s custodial killing, his wife, Paramjit, campaigned for justice, compelling the government to order a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe. Five police officials are currently serving life sentences for his murder.
Diljit Dosanjh, one of India’s leading film stars, portrays Khalra. The film is narrated by the actor playing the police officer who led the CBI investigation.
The movie has garnered critical acclaim, with reviewers hailing it as one of the most powerful Indian films in recent years.
The Roots of the Punjab Insurgency
The Khalistan rebellion ranked among independent India’s bloodiest internal conflicts during the 1980s and early 1990s.
The separatist movement stemmed from long-standing political and religious grievances regarding Sikh identity, demands for greater state autonomy, disputes over river water sharing with neighboring states, and perceived excessive federal control over the border state adjacent to Pakistan.
Armed Sikh fighters carried out bombings, targeted killings, and assassinations, while police and paramilitary forces launched a sweeping counterinsurgency operation. According to human rights groups, the operation involved torture, extrajudicial and custodial killings, enforced disappearances, and secret cremations.
In the summer of 1984, Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Sikhism’s holiest site, then occupied by separatist fighters. The assault, known as Operation Blue Star, left hundreds dead.
Later that year, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards, who held her responsible for the Golden Temple bloodshed. Gandhi’s death triggered anti-Sikh pogroms in which thousands were killed in Punjab and New Delhi, events Sikh groups have described as genocide.
Sikh fighters retaliated by assassinating General Arun Kumar Vaidya, the army chief who oversaw Operation Blue Star, in 1986. They also targeted members of parliament believed responsible for the anti-Sikh violence of the mid-1980s.
In 1994, militants killed Punjab Governor Surendar Nath, followed by Chief Minister Beant Singh the next year.
Violence largely subsided by the mid-1990s, though several Sikh groups in India and abroad continue to be accused by the Indian government of harboring separatist ambitions.
Who Was Jaswant Singh Khalra?
Khalra’s story sits at the intersection of the violence and chaos that engulfed Punjab in the 1980s and 1990s.
He examined municipal cremation records and alleged that police had secretly mass-cremated nearly 25,000 unidentified bodies—an extrapolation from his research—without notifying families or following legal procedures.
“Khalra was not a trained human rights activist. He was just a guy who got into activism because he saw something wrong happening in front of his eyes,” Jupinderjit Singh, a Punjab-based author who has written extensively on the state’s violence, told Al Jazeera.
“It was a natural resistance against oppression, and Khalra became a symbol of that,” he added.
“And the impact of the film is huge; it has shaken Punjab to the core and reopened wounds that the government thought were done,” Singh said, referencing a private screening he attended last year. “The police’s image has taken a big hit.”
Why Is the Government Blocking the Film?
Although the Punjab insurgency was crushed and support for Khalistan waned within the state, the Indian government continues to view separatist sentiment as a national security threat.
Officials have not publicly explained the film’s removal but have told local media it was taken down over security concerns.
A Press Trust of India report this week stated the government constituted a committee to examine whether the ban on the ZEE5 streaming platform should continue. Citing sources, media reports indicate the committee upheld the ban, concluding the film “goes against India’s sovereignty.”
In a statement, ZEE5 said the film would remain unavailable in India “until further notice” due to “current developments,” without elaborating. The platform added it would explore “every appropriate avenue through due process” to restore access.
Actor Dosanjh held an Instagram live session after the film’s removal, telling fans his worst fears had materialized.
Dosanjh expressed disillusionment with the years-long obstacles but found solace in the fact that the film is now being viewed at community screenings nationwide and shared widely online.
“Nothing can stop the film now,” he said.
India’s film industry has faced mounting pressure since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government came to power.
Critics argue the administration has patronized far-right “propaganda” films, granting them tax-free status, while censoring or banning independent movies that challenge state narratives.
How Are People Viewing a Banned Film?
Social media users are uploading the movie to YouTube and other platforms in defiance of the ban; as one link is removed, another appears within minutes.
Across Punjab and other regions, Sikh groups and activists have converted gurdwaras and village halls into makeshift cinemas for community screenings of Satluj.
The screenings are free, with locals providing homemade buttermilk, cold drinks, and snacks.
At a screening in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district, Inderpal Bains told Al Jazeera he watched the film after a long wait. To him, the biopic is “a horror show of reality.”
“This film talks about our pain and the dark tales our parents and grandparents lived through in Punjab,” he said. “The government is yet again burying the evidence of our sufferings.”
Similar screenings have been reported among Sikh diaspora groups in London, New York, and Toronto.
“No generation should forget its history, no matter how painful it is,” Bains said. “What remains of us if we don’t know how we reached here?”
