Government Forms Panel to Review Diljit Dosanjh Film Satluj After ZEE5 Takedown

New Delhi : The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has constituted a high-level Inter-Departmental Committee (IDC) to review the content of the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer biographical drama Satluj. The regulatory intervention comes exactly a day after the Centre invoked Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to direct OTT platform ZEE5 to abruptly pull down the film from its streaming library in India.  

Directed by Honey Trehan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s RSVP alongside MacGuffin Pictures, Satluj is based on the life of late human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who investigated the illegal cremation of thousands of unidentified bodies in Punjab during the 1980s and 1990s before mysteriously disappearing in 1995.

The project has been mired in severe censorship bottlenecks for over three years, with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) demanding an unprecedented 127 cuts under its original theatrical title, Punjab '95.

 To bypass theatrical stagnation, the creators executed a quiet digital-only premiere on ZEE5, dropping the completely uncut version online. However, the film vanished from domestic streaming platforms within 48 hours following the ministry's emergency notice citing regional security obligations and violations of the IT Rules, 2021.  

The IDC, chaired by an authorized MIB Joint Secretary and comprising representatives from the Ministries of Home Affairs, External Affairs, Electronics and IT, and Law and Justice, will evaluate whether the streaming content endangers public order or the security of the state

. While political parties in Punjab have condemned the move as an assault on artistic expression, lead actor Diljit Dosanjh stated during a social media broadcast that the digital blockade was "inevitable," expressing satisfaction that the raw narrative briefly reached the public domain.