Why Is Everyone Talking About Satluj? The Real-Life Story Ends With A Disappearance That Still Haunts Punjab

Diljit Dosanjh's film Satluj is being intensely discussed not just in the entertainment industry but across the nation. The discussions were triggered by the sudden removal of the film from OTT platform ZEE5 within just 48 hours of being released. Though the film was initially submitted to the CBFC in 2022 as Punjab 95, it wasn’t cleared till February 2025, when the film board again asked the makers to come back with up to 127 cuts in the film. With significant challenges in obtaining a CBFC certificate, the film was released directly on the OTT platform instead with a director’s cut.

However, not many know what inspired Satluj. Read on to know who Jaswant Singh Khalra was and how his disappearance triggered a storm in Punjab.

What inspires Satluj?

Satluj is based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. The movie chronicles his attempt to “expose” the alleged illegal abductions and cremation of thousands of people during Punjab's militancy era in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to reports, Khalra documented evidence and witnesses suggesting that the Punjab Police abducted thousands of people in the state and secretly cremated them. His findings brought national and international attention to alleged human rights violations in the state.

Also Read: Who Was Jaswant Singh Khalra? The Explosive True Story Behind Diljit Dosanjh's Banned Film Satluj

What was Jaswant Singh Khalra trying to find out?

During the insurgency period in Punjab, a series of events triggered Khalra to dig deep into four major cases: the custodial killing of Behla, the human-shield case involving the death of six villagers, the cremation of 25,000 unidentified bodies in Punjab, and the killing of over 2,000 police officers who allegedly did not cooperate with counter-terror operations. The events that prompted Khalra to search for the missing people were Operation Blue Star, the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

What happened to Khalra?

After attracting national and international attention, in 1995, Khalra was reported missing from his house in Amritsar. Several eye-witnesses claimed that he was washing his car outside his house just before being kidnapped by the Punjab Police, who later killed him.

Khalra's wife, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, had reportedly requested politicians and the judiciary to intervene. A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team took up the case, and in 1996, the CBI found evidence that Khalra was held at a police station in Tarn Taran. The agency recommended the prosecution of nine Punjab Police officials for kidnapping and murder of Khalra.

For ten years, those accused of Khalra's murder were not charged. On October 16, 2007, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, chaired by Justices Mehtab Singh Gill and A N Jindal, extended the sentence to life imprisonment for the other four accused - Satnam Singh, Surinder Pal Singh, Jasbir Singh (all former sub-inspectors) and Prithipal Singh (former head constable).

All about Satluj

Besides Diljit Dosanjh, the film also stars Arjun Rampal, Suvinder Vicky, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan and Kanwaljit Singh, in pivotal roles. It is helmed by Honey Trehan and produced by Ronnie Screwvala under RSVP in collaboration with MacGuffin Pictures. The film's journey to release has been marked by multiple changes in title as well. It was originally titled Ghallughara, referencing historical Sikh massacres, before being renamed Punjab '95 during its certification process with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Finally, it released with the title Satluj.