Satluj, the latest film muzzled under political pressure, refuses to go down without a fight.

The film released on ZEE5 on July 3 only to be removed — for Indian audiences — less than 48 hours later, with the platform citing “current developments” as the reason.

But Satluj — based on the life of Jaswant Singh Khalra, a citizen-activist who exposed thousands of murders and abductions by Punjab police during the 1990s Khalistani insurgency before being made to disappear and killed — has earned armies of supporters since the clampdown. Thousands are watching pirated versions.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had earlier demanded 127 cuts to the 163-minute film starring Diljit Dosanjh, reports said. ZEE5 was streaming the uncut version — CBFC clearance is not required for an OTT release.

Director Honey Trehan had last year spoken of pressure from “central government officials” on the producers to “write off” the film.

ZEE5 says it is “committed to exploring every appropriate avenue through due process to bring the film back to our audiences”.

“If a democracy is confident enough to expose the brutality of terrorism and the atrocities committed by anti-social and separatist elements, shouldn’t it also be confident enough to acknowledge instances where individuals within state institutions may have abused their powers?” an X user wrote.

Another X user said: “The film reminds us that the dehumanisation of citizens continues unabated across decades. Ill-gotten power, fueled by administrative ineptitude and moral bankruptcy, still plagues us today. And as long as it does, #Satluj will remain devastatingly relevant.”

Satluj traces Khalra’s pursuit of justice for 25,000 citizens, allegedly killed and disposed of during anti-insurgency crackdowns. Khalra disappeared in September 1995. A decade later, six Punjab police officers were convicted of abducting and murdering him.

In an Instagram Live session on Monday, the Canada-based Diljit said the film’s removal hadn’t come as a shock to him because he “always knew it could happen”.

The actor-singer said the government had been trying to silence Punjab’s voice since 1995, and this was continuing even in 2026. He expressed relief that Satluj had already found its way to large numbers of viewers and encouraged people to watch pirated versions if the film didn’t return to the platform.

“Khalra saab di avaaz nu koi ni dabaa sakda (No one can silence Khalra’s voice),” Diljit said.

No sooner had Satluj been removed from ZEE5 than downloaded prints had found their way to YouTube, WhatsApp and other social media sites, scoring views in the hundreds of thousands.

ZEE5, understandably, has expressed disappointment, urging audiences to wait till Satluj made its way back to the platform.

“We are hopeful and doing everything we can. Please do not support piracy,” a ZEE5 statement said.

Many politicians, too, have expressed support for Satluj, sometimes hurling accusations against each other.

“No film should get banned. If films like The Kerala Story and Dhurandhar can be released, then why not Satluj,” said Baltej Singh Pannu of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Punjab.

However, the AAP’s main Hindu leader in Punjab — minister Aman Arora — was more guarded, saying “facts should come before the public” but “must be presented in a way that does not harm brotherhood and unity in the future”.

From the Congress, MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira has been the only one to speak out against the censorship.

A statement from Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal said: “This is not mere censorship — it is an assault on our collective memory, truth, and freedom of expression…. Punjab deserves to confront its past with honesty, not suppression.”

Badal’s wife and MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal targeted the AAP and the Congress.

“(The) AAP and the Congress are two sides of the same coin. This is the reason why the AAP government in Punjab has come to the rescue of the Congress by approaching the central government to get the movie Satluj, which details mass encounters carried out by the Beant Singh government, removed from an OTT platform,” she said.

“This is against the sentiments of the Sikh community, which wants the world to know not only how the Congress supervised extrajudicial killings of youth but also how it eliminated human rights activist Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra who exposed the mass secret cremations done by the Punjab Police.”

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee chief Harjinder Singh Dhami said the film’s removal was an unjustified attempt to suppress historical truth, and that no ban could erase the truth about the atrocities suffered by Sikhs.

Originally titled Ghallughara — a Punjabi word that refers to the historical massacres of Sikhs — the film was later renamed Panjab ‘95 before its makers settled on Satluj.

The team behind the film had pulled it from the Toronto International Film Festival ahead of a planned world premiere in 2023, apparently under pressure from certain quarters.

At a private screening in Cannes in 2025, Trehan had told Deadline: “There is pressure on my producers to write off the film... coming from government officials, from central government officials.”

In an earlier interview with The Telegraph, he had said: “We continue to fight a battle for the film. We will keep doing what we can.”

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter India on Sunday, a few hours before the film was pulled down, Trehan said: “It was an endless cycle of ‘Cut this, delete that, alter this section’. The frustrating part was that I wasn’t receiving any legitimate, logical explanations (from CBFC) as to why these cuts were being demanded.”

Macguffin Pictures, co-owned by Trehan and Abhishek Chaubey, is the co-producer of Satluj.

Chaubey had directed Udta Punjab — a 2016 film on Punjab’s drug problem that was blocked by the CBFC.

It released only after its producers successfully sued the CBFC, which had initially demanded 89 cuts and the removal of all references to Punjab. Bombay High Court allowed the film to release with just one cut and three disclaimers.

The film — starring Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and, notably, Diljit — was a global hit, earning more than ₹100 crore worldwide.

(Additional reporting by our Delhi bureau)