Showing posts with label Honey Trehan interview. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Honey Trehan interview. Show all posts
"A revolutionary act to watch it": Satluj, the India’s censors do not want you to see
3:37 PM
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi (THE GUARDIAN; July 18, 2026)
For as long as he has been a film-maker, there is one story Honey Trehan has wanted to tell above all.
Growing up in the Indian state of Punjab, Trehan saw firsthand the devastation wrought by police who carried out tens of thousands of killings and illegal cremations in the 1990s, as they cracked down on a separatist insurgency. To those in Punjab, the period remains one of the darkest in India’s modern history. Jaswant Singh Khalra, the activist who exposed the crimes and was murdered in the process, is a national hero.
By 2022, Trehan’s movie about Khalra and the crimes of Punjab police was completed under the title Ghallughara – a reference to a historical massacre of Sikhs – but the film would never reach Indian cinemas.
For more than three years, India’s film censorship board, which must approve all cinematic releases, blocked the film from release. When it was finally launched straight to a streaming platform last week, under a new title, Satluj, it was taken down within 48 hours and banned on government orders as a threat to national security.
Trehan describes the ordeal of trying to get Satluj released as “dystopian” and decries “undemocratic censorship” and alleged political interference under the Narendra Modi government re-shaping India’s film industries. He claims Indian cinema has been widely co-opted as a propaganda arm for the government’s rightwing, religious nationalist agenda, where there is “only room for one kind of story to be told”, particularly in mainstream Hindi films.
“It is clear to me that there is no creative freedom in India today,” says Trehan. “When you see the level of censorship happening, films getting blocked by the film board and banned from release, it makes you question: does democracy exist in this country any more?”
Even today, discussions of Punjab’s separatist movement – which raged in the 1980s and 1990s, fighting for an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan, before it was crushed by the state – remain highly sensitive for the Modi government.
A ministry of information committee backed the ban on Satluj on the grounds that it lacked “balance” and had “whitewashed” the acts of Punjabi separatist militants, with the potential to incite national security issues.
“Show Muslims in a bad light and your film will get a standing ovation in the parliament,” says Trehan. “But if you dare to try and tell an uncomfortable part of our history, suddenly you are a criminal and a threat to national security.”
Trehan is not the first Indian film-maker to fall foul of India’s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in recent years. The body is legally mandated to be independent, but it has faced growing accusations by those in the industry of pushing an agenda aligned with the Hindu nationalist politics of the Modi government. The CBFC has not responded to the allegation and was not available for comment.
“From what I’ve experienced, the film board is hand in glove with the government,” says Trehan. “They are being used as a backdoor entry to control the narrative of the film industry.”
Film-makers have complained of an opaque process in which films that make any reference to government oppression, certain religions, police brutality or caste violence are blocked by censors or face demands to make impossible cuts. Filmmakers have even been told to cut images of meat in films, to avoid offending Hindus.
There is no official figure for the number of films that have languished due to censor demands. One recent example was Santosh, which debuted at Cannes to acclaim but was blocked by the CBFC for its negative portrayal of police. Writers and directors privately acknowledge that self-censorship has become a norm in the industry in order to ensure their movies get a cinema release, and not lose huge sums in profits.
Meanwhile, Bollywood films with an alleged pro-government slant such as The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story, which some have accused of telling a highly distorted version of historical events – and of fuelling Islamophobia and Hindu-Muslim division – have sailed past the board and been backed with government tax breaks and promotion.
Anna M M Vetticad, an Indian film journalist who has written about censorship, said that the treatment of Satluj encapsulated what many film-makers now have to endure.
She described a culture where film-makers were reprimanded by the censor board for realistic portrayals of social oppression or for simply “showing India in a bad light”.
“The goal is to create an atmosphere of fear and encourage self-censorship among those who have not boarded the rightwing bandwagon,” says Vetticad. “The effect on Indian cinema is potentially devastating.”
Trehan says few in the industry are willing to be as vocal as him, fearing retribution. “I know many other filmmakers who have faced similar issues but we lack unity as an industry. Most people are too worried about speaking out, especially because there is often a lot of money and careers at stake. If you criticize, suddenly a police case could be filed against you.”
In total, CBFC demanded 127 cuts to Trehan’s film, some of which appeared impossible for him to execute. As well as changing the name, the censors wanted the removal of all mention of Punjab police, the killings, government, the crematoriums where the bodies were illegally burned, the name of a former prime minister, the dates the events took place, images of the Indian flag and any scenes that showed the police in a “bad light”. They even requested the removal of Khalra’s name and a scene showing his murder inside a police station – an incident of historical record.
Trehan was particularly concerned by an insistence that he change the name of Trilokpuri – a real area in Delhi where Sikhs were massacred in the 1980s – to the invented name of “Khanpuri”, which is a name associated with Muslims. “This incident had nothing to do with Muslims, so why change to this name?” says Trehan. “You could clearly see them trying to insert their Hindu-Muslim political agenda into each and every film.”
The censors also questioned whether the film was really based on true events, prompting Trehan to hand them a file of more than 1,800 pages of research, including witness statements and court testimony.
Trehan says that “afterwards one of the people on the board said to me: ‘To my surprise, it’s a true story. But Mr Trehan, I want to ask you one thing. Who speaks the truth so loudly in today’s time?’”
As Trehan continued to be stonewalled by the CBFC, he eventually opted for a digital-only release earlier this month which does not require censor approval. He never thought the government would go as far as immediately banning the film, describing the effect as “chilling”.
He says that far from provoking a “law and order situation” in Punjab, Satluj has in fact brought communities in the state together. Since it was banned, guerilla screenings have been held across Punjab and surrounding states in village squares, gurdwaras, schools, community halls and fields, sometimes with thousands turning out. “It’s become a revolutionary act to watch it,” says Trehan.
At an event this month in remembrance of Khalra’s 1995 disappearance, people gathered on the banks of the Sutlej River in Punjab – where police are believed to have dumped his body and many others – and families of victims protested against the banning of the film.
Ranjit Singh, 38, was three years old when his father was tortured to death by police. “This film is, for me, an archive of him – of the injustices he bore on his body,” says Singh. “It may be the only archive that all this happened. I cried for days after watching it.”
Anuj Behal contributed reporting from Punjab
Honey Trehan breaks silence on Satluj controversy: "I genuinely don't know who objected"
9:38 AM
Just two days after its Zee5 première, ‘Satluj’ — previously titled ‘Punjab '95’ — was made unavailable in India, mid-day finds out how the film got an India release in the first place
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; July 6, 2026)
Four years after Punjab '95 was stopped in its tracks over objections from the censor board, Honey Trehan was finally breathing easy on Saturday morning when we got on a call with him. His film, now streaming on ZEE5 as Satluj, had arrived without a single cut.
For the filmmaker, it marks the end of a battle that often seemed impossible to win.
In his first interview since the film's release, Trehan told mid-day that there were moments when even he wasn't convinced the film would eventually see the light of day "Even till yesterday afternoon, I wasn't sure if the film would come out," he says with a laugh. "We've reached this point so many times before that I had stopped allowing myself to believe it. I kept telling myself, 'Let it go, let it go.' Then suddenly, it was just there."
The release, he says, belongs as much to the family of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra as it does to the makers. "I spoke to them immediately. They are very, very happy. It was important because we didn't get the title Punjab '95. Naturally, people assumed the film must have been released with cuts. Paramjit aunty herself clarified that this is the same film. Hundreds of people who had watched the earlier version are now saying Satluj is exactly the same film."
For Trehan, that validation mattered more than anything else. "I'm getting messages from IPS officers in Punjab asking, 'The film is without cuts, right?' They are excited to finally watch it. That means a lot."
The director admits he was initially worried that the four-year delay would burden the film with impossible expectations. "I actually felt the opposite happened. These three years became three years of publicity. Punjab '95 had become much bigger than the film itself. My only anxiety before release was whether I could live up to what people had built in their minds. But the response has been overwhelming. Every reaction has become memorable."
Trehan credits producer Ronnie Screwvala, Diljit Dosanjh and ZEE5 for refusing to compromise. "The way Ronnie sir and Diljit stood by me and stood by the film... I can't thank them enough. And what courage ZEE has shown. Hats off to them. They simply dropped the trailer, posters and the film together. There was no release date, no countdown, nothing. It was just — streaming now. I've never seen anything like that."
Throughout the film's uncertain journey, Dosanjh remained firmly behind the project, says Trehan. Recalling how the actor came on board, he says their relationship dates back to Udta Punjab. "Even before I told him I wanted to make a film on Jaswant Singh Khalra, he immediately said, 'There's only one story from Punjab worth making if it isn't about 1984'. I showed him my research book. He looked at Mr Khalra's photograph, picked up the book, placed it on his forehead and simply said, 'Waheguru ji... tell me when and where to come. You'll find me there'."
That commitment, Trehan says, never wavered. "There were days when he reported at six in the morning and I couldn't take his first shot until four in the evening because schedules had gone haywire. I kept apologizing. Every single time he would tell me, 'Paaji, no problem. Whatever you're doing, you're doing for the film. I'm here to support the film.'"
The filmmaker also recounts how Dosanjh recently waited nearly an hour for an Instagram Live session promoting the film despite repeated technical glitches. "He waited for almost 50 minutes. We couldn't connect because of technical issues. Finally, someone got us connected. It wasn't about publicity. Somewhere, both of us felt we would connect. That's the kind of person he is."
Even today, Trehan says he doesn't know who exactly objected to Punjab '95. "If somebody asks me who had a problem with the film, I genuinely don't know. I don't have a face. I don't have a name. Everything came through third persons or lawyers."
He reveals that communication from the censor board effectively stopped earlier this year, forcing the makers to find another route. "There came a point when there was simply no communication anymore. After everything we'd gone through, there was nothing left to discuss. That's when ZEE stepped in and made this release possible."
Yet, despite the years of uncertainty, he refuses to hold grudges. "I've never been bitter. Sometimes you feel hurt emotionally because you're not getting answers. But I also remind myself that I'm talking about one film. The people running the country have much bigger responsibilities. Sometimes there must have been helplessness. I respect the people and the positions they hold."
He points out that every legal body and community organization that watched the film responded positively. "The SGPC watched the film. The Akal Takht committee watched the film. Everywhere I went, the response was overwhelming. Today the film is available across 196 countries on ZEE5 and all I'm receiving is love. So where exactly was the problem?"
Trehan also responded to Diljit Dosanjh's recent assertion that he is "not political, but an artiste". Without commenting on the actor's statement, the director says art inevitably exists alongside politics. "Art can be different from the politics of the time you're living in. Otherwise your art cannot be truthful. Everything today becomes political."
He insists Satluj was never designed to make a political argument. "We're only talking about human rights. We're not commenting on the politics of that period. We're talking about what happens when extraordinary powers are placed in the hands of a few people. That's a human issue, not a political one."
Trehan believes that is why audiences across generations are responding to the film. "Someone messaged me saying this film doesn't reopen wounds; it heals them. That stayed with me. People feel somebody has finally told their story. That's probably the greatest compliment I've received."
At the time of going to press, ‘Satluj’ had been made unavailable on ZEE5 in India.
Statement by Zee5 “The response to ‘Satluj’ since its release has been truly overwhelming. We are deeply grateful to every viewer who chose to subscribe, watch and champion the film. Your love and support have meant a great deal to us and to everyone who brought this story to life. At Zee5, we stand firmly by ‘Satluj’ and the creative vision behind it. We believe powerful storytelling has the ability to inspire, endure, and leave a lasting impact. We remain committed to championing authentic and meaningful narratives. 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. Our commitment to creators and to stories told with conviction, artistic integrity and purpose remains unwavering.”
It’s sad that ours will be Rishi Kapoor's last film-Honey Trehan
8:19 AM
As told to Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 1, 2020)
Rishi Kapoor's professionalism was inspiring. I remember he was as charged up as a debutant before the shoot of our film, Sharmaji Namkeen. The Delhi schedule was to start on January 15, 2020. Ritesh (Sidhwani, Producer) and I requested him to come two days early so we could take him through the set-up and character graph. He landed and the following day, his sister (Ritu Nanda) passed away. We were looking to reschedule but in answer to my condolence message he asked, “What is the call time tomorrow?” I told him to take it easy for a few days to which he retorted, “Bakwas maat karo, what happened is personal, but work is my profession. I am equally responsible for both. The show must go on.” On January 15, he was on the set at 8.45 am.Our film is a light-hearted coming-of-age story of a lovable 60-year-old man and he was Sharmaji personified. Unbelievable, but that’s why these people are so special.
He was looking forward to doing a film with Deepika Padukone (The official adaptation of the Hollywood film, The Intern) and a comedy with Sanjay Dutt (Pandit Galli Ka Ali). In the latter, he was to play a pandit and excited about going completely bald.
Before the lockdown, I called to check on his health and asked if I could meet him in the morning. He insisted I come after 8 pm so we could have a drink together. Mornings were for serious conversations while evenings were for spending time together. He was very particular about time, so if you were delayed even by five minutes, it was imperative you inform him.
It’s sad that ours will be his last film. I would definitely have wanted to see a lot more of him.
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