Some films are released. Some films are resisted. And some films are released only to be silenced again.
Satluj, the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer earlier known as ‘Punjab ’95’, has now entered the third category. After years of delay, title changes and censorship battles, the film finally reached audiences on ZEE5. But within days, it was taken down or “paused” for viewers in India. ZEE5 has said the film is temporarily unavailable in India “in light of current developments” and that the platform is exploring due process to bring it back at the earliest opportunity.
The removal has invited sharp criticism. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the move, calling it an assault on collective memory, truth and freedom of expression. His reaction is politically important because it places the film not merely in the world of cinema, but directly inside Punjab’s moral and political debate.
The timing gives the film an added resonance. Punjab is already moving towards the 2027 Assembly election. The bugle has not merely been sounded by political parties; it is being heard in villages, social media debates, diaspora conversations and Panthic spaces. In such an atmosphere, a film on Jaswant Singh Khalra is not just a cinematic event. It becomes part of Punjab’s larger political and moral conversation.
Khalra’s story carries a message from the past to the present generation. He was the human rights activist who documented alleged illegal cremations and disappearances during Punjab’s militancy and counter-insurgency years. For those who lived through that period, his name is linked with courage, fear and unfinished justice. For many young Punjabis, Satlujmay be their first serious introduction to a chapter that shaped Punjab’s conscience.
The film reportedly revisits disappearances, alleged extra-judicial killings and illegal detentions linked to Punjab’s troubled period of the 1980s and 1990s.
A film about history, but also about public memory
Punjab’s militancy years are often remembered through terrorism, police operations, security challenges and national integrity. But another story lived beneath that narrative: missing sons, unidentified bodies, cremation grounds, fear and silence. Jaswant Singh Khalra’s work emerged from this darkness. He followed municipal records, cremation registers and names of those allegedly cremated without informing families. Human Rights Watch recorded that Khalra exposed mass secret cremations by Punjab Police in Amritsar district, which then included Tarn Taran, Patti and other border areas. After his disappearance, the Supreme Court ordered a CBI investigation.
The CBI identified 2,097 cremations at three crematoria grounds in Amritsar district. Activists, however, believe the scale was much larger.
This is where cinema begins to do what courts, commissions and books often cannot. It converts documented history into public memory. Satluj does not merely tell the story of one man. It takes the audience into a period when fear had become normal and documentation itself became resistance.
Jaswant Singh Khalra and Ram Narayan Kumar
The moral force of Khalra’s story lies in its simplicity. He asked a basic question: if these bodies were “unclaimed”, who were they? Who killed them? Why were their families not informed? Why were names and records hidden?
In a democracy, even the dead have dignity. Khalra’s work was a fight to restore that dignity.
The Supreme Court later upheld life sentences for former Punjab Police personnel convicted in the abduction and killing of Khalra. The court record noted that he was a human rights activist working on abductions, killings and illegal cremations of unclaimed bodies during the Punjab insurgency period.
But the legal record is only one part of this story. The other part lives in the memories of those who were there at that time.
Rajiv Randhawa, who says he witnessed Khalra being taken away on September 6, 1995, still remembers the morning. In a conversation, he said Khalra was taken from his Amritsar residence around 9:08 or 9:10 am by the police. He recalled a sky-blue Maruti van. For him, the scene has not faded even after three decades.
Randhawa also makes an important point about the film’s reach. He says books on Khalra may have reached 30,000 or 35,000 readers, but a film featuring Diljit Dosanjh can take the story to lakhs, perhaps millions. In his view, this will generate awareness about Khalra’s sacrifice and about human rights.
Some human rights activists associated with that period say Ram Narayan Kumar had encouraged wider documentation of disappearances and state excesses in Punjab.
Ram Narayan Kumar was already known for his work on human rights violations in different parts of India, including Punjab, Kashmir and Assam, when he came into contact with Jaswant Singh Khalra. His concern was not limited to one region or one community; he was studying patterns of disappearances, state violence and accountability across conflict-affected areas.
In Punjab, this search brought him close to Khalra’s work. Ram Narayan Kumar helped place this evidence within a wider human-rights framework. His book Reduced to Ashes later became an important reference point in understanding Punjab’s troubled years.
Journalism, risk and the Bains account
The Khalra case was not exposed only by activists and lawyers. Journalists also played a crucial role.
Senior journalist Satinder Bains, who was then with The Indian Express, recalls the Khalra investigation as one of the most important stories of his career. According to him, the breakthrough came through Kuldeep Singh, a Special Police Officer posted at Jhabal police post. Bains says Kuldeep Singh allegedly disclosed details of Khalra’s illegal detention and killing, and those reports helped bring the case into the public domain.
In his conversation, Bains makes a nuanced point about the film’s release. He does not see a clear political reason behind the timing. He says there may be business reasons or other reasons behind the platform shift, but he does not believe the timing is directly linked to elections.
In Punjab, almost everything can quickly be read through politics. But Bains’s view offers caution. The film’s release may have political resonance, but that does not necessarily mean it was released with a direct political design. If the film had been released only a few months before voting, the argument of electoral timing may have carried more weight. But with the Punjab election still months away, its immediate political impact may reduce by the time the campaign peaks.
Bains also says the change of title may not matter much because people already know that Satluj is the same film earlier known as Punjab ’95. The original title had a sharper impact, but the long publicity around the controversy has already created public recognition.
His most important point, however, is about awareness. Bains says such films become a lesson for future generations, for society and for governments. He notes that human rights conversations have become diluted, while violations still occur. A film like Satluj, he says, starts a discussion in society – and that discussion is necessary.
The story also belongs to those who refused to let Jaswant Singh Khalra disappear from public memory after he was taken away. It belongs to his family, especially Paramjit Kaur Khalra, who carried the burden of personal loss with extraordinary courage. It belongs to the human rights lawyers, journalists and activists who continued to speak his name, preserve his work and pursue justice at a time when silence was safer than truth.
Human rights voices and today’s generation
Human rights activist Sarbjit Singh Verka, who worked with Justice Ajit Singh Bains and assisted in the Khalra-related case, also sees the film as an instrument of awareness. According to him, Punjab went through very hard times, and today’s generation does not fully know what happened during that period.
Sarbjit Singh Verka’s own journey also reflected the risks faced by human rights voices in Punjab. He revealed that he was falsely implicated in terror cases in the 1990s, later acquitted, and after a long legal battle was awarded compensation. His experience showed that those who pursued accountability were not merely documenting the suffering of others; many of them also paid a personal price for speaking against abuse of power.
Will it affect Punjab’s politics?
Political parties have already started building their narratives for the 2027 polls. AAP wants to defend governance. Congress wants to return as the main alternative. The Akali Dal is trying to regain Panthic trust. The BJP is attempting to expand its space in Punjab.
MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney described Satluj as a chilling reminder of Punjab’s “killing fields” and alleged fake encounters. He said Khalra’s cremation-ground evidence later found recognition through the Supreme Court and NHRC records on bodies cremated in Amritsar, Majitha and Tarn Taran between June 1984 and December 1994.
A film on Jaswant Singh Khalra naturally carries political meaning in Punjab, raising questions of police accountability, state power, human rights, Sikh memory and justice. Yet Satinder Bains does not see Satluj as having a direct electoral impact, arguing that elections are still some distance away and the timing does not appear clearly political.
But, one could argue that Satluj might not have a direct electoral impact because elections were still some distance away. That argument still holds to an extent. Films rarely decide elections. But the removal of the film has changed its political energy.
The film may not decide votes. But its interruption can deepen sentiment.
It may revive questions that political parties often prefer to avoid: why is Punjab’s pain still being managed? Why is memory still being treated as a threat? Why does a story about human rights require so much permission?
Ironically, taking down Satluj may not reduce its impact. It may get amplified with debates on television and discussions among the people.
Earlier, Satluj was a river carrying Punjab’s memory, pain and history. Now it has become a symbol of interrupted truth. Jaswant Singh Khalra followed the dead to restore their dignity. Three decades later, a film on his life briefly appeared and then disappeared from Indian screens. That disappearance is now the story and its symbolism is impossible to ignore.
Satluj may be paused. But Jaswant Singh Khalra’s question remains alive: who has the right to bury truth, and for how long?
(Ravinder Singh Robin is a broadcast journalist with over two decades of experience in covering Punjab, Sikh affairs and border issues)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
