Diljit Dosanjh, who has a habit of willy-nilly getting into controversies, faces the biggest challenge of his career. His monumental recreation of the excesses during Punjab’s militancy in the 1990s, tentatively titled Punjab 95, based on the life of Sikh activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, has been blocked from release by the Central Board of Film Certification not once but innumerable times.
The outstanding film, one of the most cogent and gripping depictions of a time when every household in Punjab feared a knock on the door, has been battling the Central Board of Film Certification.
The latest on that front is that the CBFC has asked for a record 127 cuts before giving a censor certificate. The CBFC has also asked for the title to be changed, which was altered from Ghalughara, which meant Carnage. In March, an international release for the uncut version of the film (barring India) was announced. However, the decision was reversed for unknown reasons.
Diljit Dosanjh and the film’s very talented director, Honey Trehan, are totally opposed to these cuts. And rightly so. Punjab 95 is an epic on the violation of human rights that must be seen by every Indian. It’s an epic whiplash of a film, a wake-up call for all of us who believe the world is a safe place as long as we obey the law.
Says director Honey Trehan, “Both Diljit and I consider Punjab 95 to be the most important films of our career. We have poured our blood, sweat, and tears to tell a story that must be heard. If we don’t look at the errors of judgment in our past, then we will continue to make the same mistakes again and again.”
Diljit has earlier done two films on Punjab militancy, one was the hard-hitting Punjab 1984 in 2014, directed by Anurag Singh, and the other the much softer film Jogi in 2022, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar. Neither got into a scuffle with the censor board. This is the first time one of Diljit’s films is stuck at the censors. He has made it clear to all concerned that he would rather not release the film than take the cuts.
Diljit Dosanjh had spoken to me in an earlier conversation about the importance of balancing entertainment with a statement. “Sir, I could be doing Jatt & Juliet forever, and the money would keep pouring in. But as an entertainer with a voice, I need to use that voice to address issues that are buried but not forgotten.”
