After the Honey Trehan directorial Satluj was dropped from ZEE5, the film’s lead actor Diljit Dosanjh went live on Instagram to encourage people to watch the film from downloaded links and also said that the government’s action against the film was expected and that’s why the makers silently released the film on OTT without any promotions.
Satluj started streaming on ZEE5 on Friday evening and was taken off on Sunday evening, less than 48 hours later even amid positive reviews. The film is based on the life of late human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who investigated extra-judicial killings in Punjab at the height of militancy. It has been struggling to get a theatrical release since 2023, with earlier reports suggesting that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had asked for over 120 cuts in the film.
In the live session, Diljit said that he had a feeling that the film would be taken off from OTT after its release. “It is not a shock to me. I knew it would happen since the film came out. I thought Satluj would be removed once offices open on Monday. However, I didn’t expect it will happen on Sunday itself. All this has been going on since day one, that’s why we couldn’t even promote the film,” he said.
Having said that, the singer-actor expressed his happiness about Satluj releasing on the digital medium, even if it was for a brief period. “But, I am glad that the film has reached many households. I wanted our hard work to reach the audience. I am thankful to God about that. Congratulations to our team, we achieved what we wanted to. It’s your film, you watch it however you want.”
He added, “This was pretty much expected. To not tell anyone (about release) and do it suddenly was the only way to release the film. If we had promoted it even two days before, it wouldn’t have reached you all. I was watching a video in the morning, in which the film was being screened at a gurudwara.”
Previously too Diljit had predicted the fate of his film. During an earlier Instagram live segment, he had urged people to watch the film quickly, before it is taken down from the OTT platform.
While removing the film on Sunday evening, Zee5 wrote in an Instagram post, “In light of the current developments, Satluj will be unavailable in India until further notice. We remain committed to exploring every appropriate avenue through due process to bring the film back to our audiences at the earliest opportunity.”
Earlier titled Punjab 95, Satluj is a biopic of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra who shed light on Punjab police's extra-judicial killing of about 25,000 people at the time of insurgency in the state. It stars Diljit Dosanjh, Arjun Rampal and Suvinder Vicky, amongst others.
