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This interview, first published on July 10, 2025, was republished on July 7, 2026, after the film was pulled from an OTT platform. 

Walking away from director Honey Trehan after a 90-minute conversation on the fate of his film, Panjab ‘95 – I couldn’t help but view him as Nishikant Kamat’s protagonist from Dombivali Fast (2006). Kamat’s film tells the story of a common man – fed up with the ways of the ‘system’, who takes matters in his own hands. A grounded version of a vigilante film, what’s stayed with me after two decades — is the film’s righteous anger. 

It’s a feeling I had often, during my conversation with Trehan, a few days after he held a private screening in Bengaluru.

Initially scheduled for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2023 – Trehan’s film has been kicked around for almost three years by the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC). Trehan tried to humour them for a long time, before finally giving up. And now he will tell practically anyone who will listen about his long dire battle with the censorship powers.

Set in the aftermath of Punjab’s most tumultuous decade, Trehan’s film follows the efforts of a meek banker called Jaswant Singh Khalra (Diljit Dosanjh). Searching for a family friend who is reported ‘missing’, Khalra uncovers a string of similar cases (running into hundreds) – which threaten to expose the corruption at the heart of Punjab Police of the time. Khalra was abducted from his home – and the investigation of his disappearance becomes the rest of the film. With a stacked cast including names like Kanwaljeet Singh, Suvinder Vicky, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Arjun Rampal among at least half a dozen sparkling performances – Trehan’s film might be one of the most sobering Hindi film experiences I have had in the last few years. 

Going around as the spokesman for his stuck-in-purgatory film, one gets the sense that Trehan is well-oiled with his responses by now. It is something I gleaned from his response to my first question, which went on for about 20 minutes (barring a few interjections). Two words come up repeatedly – ‘uneducated’ and ‘gundagardi’ (hooliganism) during the conversation.

I first heard about Panjab ‘95 when it got pulled from TIFF 2023 in Toronto. Can you explain the chain of events till then?

The film was given 21 cuts when we first applied for a censor certificate. We asked for reasons – there was no response. We approached the Bombay high court, because that’s the only recourse we have. You’ve done your gundagardi and removed the FCAT (a former higher body of appeal if a filmmaker was unhappy with the modifications suggested by CBFC).

We applied for the censor certificate in December 2022, and we approached the courts six months later, when there was no response from the CBFC to the cut list. Also, who gave the authority to the censor board to alter narrative points in a........

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