Diljit Dosanjh“Satluj” has been in the news ever since the film was removed from OTT two days after its release. Earlier, the CBFC recommended 127 cuts in the film, so the producers chose to release it through OTT. Now, filmmakers Anurag Kashyap It is claimed that former CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi objected to Diljit Dosanjh’s “Satluj” without even watching the movie. Talking about the long-running censorship battle surrounding the Honey Trehan directorial, Kashyap claimed that the director himself told him that objections had been raised despite Joshi not having seen the film. For those who don’t know, Prasoon Joshi leads central board of film certification Until May 2026, Shashi Shekhar Vempati took over as chairman.‘Satluj’, which was earlier titled ‘Punjab ’95’, has been mired in censorship issues for the past three years. The film was recently removed from ZEE5 Global just days after its release. Kashyap recalled a conversation with Honey Trehan about the certification process. “My dear, Prasoon Joshi is against the film. He has not seen the film. I know that in other cases the chairman has not seen the film either,” Kashyap said in an interview with Kunal Kamra. The filmmaker further claimed that the CBFC chairman may not necessarily watch every film personally but may take decisions based on reports submitted by censor board members. “Based on this report, an arbitrary decision could be made. Therefore, the film was arbitrarily withdrawn. When I last spoke to Haney, he was not given any clear reason,” he said.Trehan recently told The Indian Express that neither he nor the producers received any direct communication before the film was pulled from the streaming platform. “I didn’t get any call from them. I had nothing to do. Neither my producers nor I got any call. But Zee5 got a letter from the (I&B) ministry asking to stop shooting of the film,” Trehan said.When the project was still titled “Punjab ’95”, Prasoon Joshi reportedly recommended 127 cuts, including removing all references to Punjab. The manufacturers also claimed that they were forced to withdraw their cases against CBFC during the pendency in court.Kashyap also criticized Joshi for not publicly addressing the recent controversy surrounding film censorship. “If the face of the corpse is that of Prasoon Joshi, he has not made any statement about all the films being stopped. Ultimately, by removing FCAT, it is a Kafkaesque thing,” he said.He further added, “Government offices are a Kafkaesque face. You cannot hold any one government office accountable because they follow guidelines and procedures,” while claiming that guidelines change based on public sentiment.
