Satluj, the Honey Trehan directorial, has created quite an uproar in the past few weeks, first with its sudden OTT release on ZEE5, followed by the streamer taking it off within 2 days, reportedly due to censorship issues. A few days later, the film, previously titled Punjab 95, was also removed from ZEE5 internationally. During a recent public appearance, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap opened up the subject.
While appearing on Kunal Kamra’s YouTube show ‘Khabar-e-Azam,’ Anurag claimed that the guidelines set by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) are rather arbitrary and keep changing on the basis of reactions to other films. He said, “Honey says Prasoon Joshi had objections with the film. He hadn’t seen the film. I know, in other cases also, the chairman doesn’t see the film.”
Further speaking about the arbitrary process of CBFC, the Gangs of Wasseypur filmmaker added, “The CBFC chief only acts on the basis of a report he gets from members of his Examining Committee. On the basis of that report, an arbitrary decision can be made. So, the film has been arbitrarily withdrawn. When I last spoke to Honey, he hasn’t been given any clear reasons. If the body’s face is Prasoon Joshi, he hasn’t made any statements on all the films being stopped.”
In the podcast, the filmmaker also mentioned how he sees a similar honesty in Satluj, as his debut theatrical release Black Friday (2007) which too faced plenty of censorship issues. In the past few days, Anurag has also been sharing stories about Satluj’s unofficial screenings held in villages all over Punjab, as a sign of resistance to the censorship.
Starring Diljit Dosanjh in the lead role, Satluj is based on the true incidents around 1995, and revolves around the killing of human rights activitst Jaswant Singh Khalra after he exposed the atrocities and extra-judicial killings by Punjab state police.
It is to be noted that one of Anurag Kashyap’s recent films, Kennedy, premiered directly on Zee5 in February this year after being unofficially held back due to censorship issues for nearly 2 years.
