Jul 05, 2026 8:00pm IST
Honey Trehan On ‘Satluj’s’ CBFC Ordeal: ‘Why Shouldn’t This Have Been In Theaters Three Years Ago?’ (EXCLUSIVE)
When the biographical crime drama “Satluj” suddenly dropped on Zee5 on July 3, it ended a grueling three-year standoff with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Originally completed in 2023 under the title “Ghalughara,” the film faced intense resistance. The board slapped it with 127 cuts, demanding the total erasure of the word Punjab, a reduction in scenes depicting police atrocities, the removal of specific district names, and, incredibly, the deletion of the protagonist’s name: human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.
However, following an abrupt shift in developments, Zee5 issued a sudden statement confirming that "Satluj: will be unavailable in India until further notice. The latest turn of events has once again cast uncertainty over the film’s long and contentious journey to Indian audiences.
Faced with a compromised vision, director Honey Trehan and lead star Diljit Dosanjh made a pact to withdraw their names from the credits rather than surrender. Today, the film is streaming completely uncut under its metaphorical new title, “Satluj.”
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In an exclusive interview with Variety India, Trehan says, “Khalra was a follower of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. I come from Tarn Taran. Growing up, I heard his name constantly. I shot this film in my own neighborhood, among my own family and neighbors. This was never a political film for me; viewed through a micro lens, it is strictly about human rights.”
The road to the screen was a lesson in institutional fatigue. Trehan admits that the team had reached the threshold of a release multiple times over the last three years, only to be pushed back. “We were at a point where we said, ‘Okay, we will only believe it when it actually streams.’ But the team at Zee took this film into their lap and presented it to the world. It is rare to find a partner with that level of courage and conviction.”
This resistance felt particularly pointed in an industry where explicit or vulgar content routinely slips through the cracks. For Trehan, the creative clarity came from his mentor, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj. “He always told me that in any film, the director stands completely naked before the audience first. Your true intentions cannot be hidden. Whatever others are making is their individual decision, but for me, this project transformed from a film into a sacred responsibility.”
That transformation happened on the fourth day of shooting. Trehan was filming a scene where Khalra visits grieving families, casting real-life victims from the villages. An 82-year-old local woman delivered a heart-wrenching line about the lingering police presence. When an assistant director praised her performance, she looked at him and said, “Son, it might be a dialogue for you, but we have lived through this.”
“Hearing that through my headphones, I realized I couldn’t treat this as just a movie,” Trehan recalls. “This wasn’t something to be made; it was a responsibility to be honored. I immediately stripped out the commercial songs we had recorded. The Gurbani became the very soul of the film, guiding the emotional weight of Jaswant Singh’s ultimate sacrifice.”
Trehan pulls no punches regarding the state of censorship in the country, correcting the very vocabulary used to describe it. “I don’t believe in censorship. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a certification board, not a censor board. But they have cut so many films and scenes that ‘censor board’ has naturally slipped into our vocabulary. They have normalized a lie so many times that it has begun to sound like the truth.”
He asserts, “Those in power must not abuse their chairs. If anyone has a genuine issue, let them take it to court. ‘Satluj’ is now out in 196 countries and receiving unanimous love. Where is the problem? Why shouldn’t this have been in theaters three years ago? No one has an answer.”
Even with global success, Trehan is not ready to let the domestic battle go. “I am planning to post a public request to the board to grant the certificate formally. Even if we do not hold theatrical screenings, respect has to be shown toward a martyr like Jaswant Singh Khalra by officially clearing the film.”
As for what lies ahead, Trehan will continue to split his time between international film festivals and the writers’ room. Up next is the anticipated “Raat Akeli Hai 3” and a highly personal biopic of the iconic Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi. “He was the youngest recipient of the Sahitya Akademi Award at 24,” Trehan says. “The words he left behind are timeless, and that is the kind of truth I want to keep chasing.”
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