By Adityaveer Singh Makkar
The Diljit Dosanjh starrer movie “Satluj” based on the Punjab 1990’s period got banned by the centre. The movie featuring as the autobiography of Jaswant Singh Khalra, who spoke against the deeds of the state police killing of innocent people under the tag of militants across various parts of Punjab. The people were criminated as unidentified people. Jaswant Singh Khalra went to expose this matter at a high level and tried to aware the people about it and to speak against the killings by the police. The movie was finally released on the OTT platform of ZEE5 but was pulled out in just 2 days after its release. On 3rd July the movie was pulled by the Ministry of information and broadcasting on the basis that the movie contains matter of India’s sovereignty. The SGPC committee announced the screening of the movie in various parts of Punjab after the movie was pulled out of the OTT platform on 3rd July, 2026. The centre formed a committee to investigate on the ban of the movie “Satluj”. The committee involved members from the defense, law and order, information and broadcasting sector and external affairs and so many more.
The committee suggested the centre to keep the ban on the movie “Satluj’ as it contains matters on the India’s integrity. A question arises what kind of a ban is it, as in many parts of Punjab the movie is screened by gathering a large crowd in various places and by using projectors it is being screened. Infact many people are liking the movie and wants to know about the reality? The thing is that people should also get to see the other side of the movie, to know proper knowledge of what actually happened in Punjab during the 1990’s period. One important thing is that we don’t know about the exact figure of people killed. But a debatable question arises why the government is banning the movie from OTT platform or from releasing it.
On the other side some people demanding that the people who were targeted and then killed from stopping buses to killing people at religious places to killing at any area in the whole Punjab. The side which is shown is okay but what about the part which is not shown and many questions arises as Who was responsible for killing those people? Why were those people killed? What kind of atmosphere was there in Punjab? Why many people left Punjab and settled in different part of the nation? What was the government doing at that time? What is the reality of Punjab in 1990’ period? Questions are many but answers lies in the deep hidden history which is not told. The period Punjab 1990’s has been a period where some fled to different places to save their lives to those whose family members were killed and to those who survived in Punjab under militancy rule.
A difficult phase whose reality is a mystery to everyone. These matters are very sensitive in nature and should be treated with very carefulness and with seriousness especially when these kind of matters are depicted in movies, web series, dramas and many more forms as these matters have different bases and sentiments to people. These sensitive matters are connected to the people in different ways. It’s a must part to respect everyone’s emotions in these matters.
