Bollywood movies are made for release in cinema theatres and, more recently, for OTT (over-the-top) platforms. Their makers obviously want the movie to be popular and widely seen. This is how they recover their costs and make money. However, in India, this also requires certification from the censor authorities, failing which, the movie dies a quiet death.

The case of Honey Trehan’s Punjab ’95 has been quite different. After waiting with the CBFC for over three years, the movie was allowed to be released with an altered title, Satluj, on an OTT platform, but was pulled back in about 48 hours. Anticipating such a possibility, its lead actor, Diljit Dosanjh, told his Punjabi followers on social media that if they had not yet seen the movie, they should quickly download and watch it later. Soon, it began circulating through informal networks across Punjab and beyond.

Satluj is about the life of a human rights activist, Jaswant Singh Khalra, who exposed atrocities committed by the Punjab police in the late 1980s and early 1990s, while they fought Sikh militancy. It focuses on his campaign against the large number of “disappearances”, in which the police would pick up young........

© Indian Express