How Satluj landed on OTT: Director Honey Trehan recalls battle before release
Director Honey Trehan said Satluj reached ZEE5 after months of delays, court efforts and a tightly guarded release plan. Trehan also revealed the struggles behind releasing the film directly on OTT.
The surprise release of Diljit Dosanjh's Satluj on ZEE5 may have caught audiences off guard, but director Honey Trehan has revealed that getting the film to streaming was anything but easy. After months of uncertainty, repeated delays and an exhausting battle to secure a release, the team chose to keep the OTT premiere under wraps until the very last moment.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Trehan spoke about the behind-the-scenes efforts and said only a handful of people knew that the film was finally set to premiere. "A massive amount of swift operational heavy lifting was happening behind closed doors between RSVP (Ronnie Screwvala.Productions) and ZEE," he said, admitting that he had almost lost hope that the film would ever see the light of day. "Even at 6 pm on Friday, I messaged the team asking, 'Is this actually happening tonight?'"
The director revealed that, apart from the core corporate teams at RSVP and ZEE, Dosanjh was the only person aware of the release plan. Recalling the moment before the film dropped, Trehan said he had just sent an anxious message to RSVP when he received a text from Diljit saying, "Paaji, it's really coming out tonight." Calling it "pure telepathy", Trehan credited the streaming giant for making the release possible and said he had "nothing but monumental respect" for the platform's efforts.
Trehan also opened up about why the makers ultimately opted for a direct-to-digital release. He said the team had spent months waiting for clarity but received no meaningful response despite multiple attempts. "We eventually approached the court, but nothing shifted," he said. It was then that producer Ronnie Screwvala and ZEE decided to release the film on OTT, where a theatrical CBFC certificate was not mandatory.
According to Trehan, ZEE believed in the project from the beginning and "adopted an abandoned child" by ensuring it finally reached audiences.
Even after the release was confirmed, Trehan admitted he struggled to believe it would actually happen because of the film's troubled journey. "I had trained myself to believe, 'I'll only celebrate it when it actually drops on screens.' That was my psychological defence mechanism," he said, explaining that he had witnessed too many release plans collapse at the last minute.
Now that Satluj is finally out, Trehan said the overwhelming response from viewers across the world has made the long wait worthwhile. "The sheer volume of love and global goodwill the film has received is overwhelming," he said, adding that his phone had been buzzing constantly with messages from audiences reacting to the film.
Government reveals reason behind film’s takedown
The Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj was taken down from ZEE5 just two days after its release, following a directive from the government citing "security concerns" and obligations under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, according to government sources. The film, which premiered uncut on the streaming platform on Friday, was removed on Sunday evening.
The takedown has sparked widespread reactions, with political parties in Punjab and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) backing the film's release.
A government official said that the makers of Satluj had applied for a certificate with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in 2022 under its original title Punjab '95, but they did not accept the 127 cuts suggested by the censor board and withheld its release.
"They kept sitting on the suggested cuts and eventually released the movie quietly on OTT with a new title. OTT does not come under the CBFC's jurisdiction. When the matter came to the government's notice, Zee was asked to take it (the film) down,” PTI cited the official source.
Why was it taken down from ZEE5?
On Sunday, ZEE5 announced that it had temporarily removed Satluj from its platform for viewers in India. In an official statement, the streaming platform said the film's availability had been put on "pause" in light of "current developments." While reiterating its support for the film and its makers, ZEE5 did not disclose the specific reason behind the decision. Notably, Diljit Dosanjh had predicted that the film could be taken down even before it premiered on the platform.
The platform has not clarified whether the takedown is connected to the film's earlier certification issues and has only cited the ongoing "current developments". Given its politically sensitive subject, Satluj had already faced a prolonged battle over certification, with the makers alleging that the demands extended well beyond routine cuts.
On July 6, ZEE5 issued another statement assuring viewers that it was making every effort to restore the film on the platform. It also appealed to audiences not to resort to piracy while the issue is being resolved.
The film also starring, Arjun Rampal, Saurabh Sachdeva, Kanwaljit Singh and Suvinder Vicky in key roles, is produced by Abhishek Chaubey.
The surprise release of Diljit Dosanjh's Satluj on ZEE5 may have caught audiences off guard, but director Honey Trehan has revealed that getting the film to streaming was anything but easy. After months of uncertainty, repeated delays and an exhausting battle to secure a release, the team chose to keep the OTT premiere under wraps until the very last moment.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Trehan spoke about the behind-the-scenes efforts and said only a handful of people knew that the film was finally set to premiere. "A massive amount of swift operational heavy lifting was happening behind closed doors between RSVP (Ronnie Screwvala.Productions) and ZEE," he said, admitting that he had almost lost hope that the film would ever see the light of day. "Even at 6 pm on Friday, I messaged the team asking, 'Is this actually happening tonight?'"
The director revealed that, apart from the core corporate teams at RSVP and ZEE, Dosanjh was the only person aware of the release plan. Recalling the moment before the film dropped, Trehan said he had just sent an anxious message to RSVP when he received a text from Diljit saying, "Paaji, it's really coming out tonight." Calling it "pure telepathy", Trehan credited the streaming giant for making the release possible and said he had "nothing but monumental respect" for the platform's efforts.
Trehan also opened up about why the makers ultimately opted for a direct-to-digital release. He said the team had spent months waiting for clarity but received no meaningful response despite multiple attempts. "We eventually approached the court, but nothing shifted," he said. It was then that producer Ronnie Screwvala and ZEE decided to release the film on OTT, where a theatrical CBFC certificate was not mandatory.
According to Trehan, ZEE believed in the project from the beginning and "adopted an abandoned child" by ensuring it finally reached audiences.
Even after the release was confirmed, Trehan admitted he struggled to believe it would actually happen because of the film's troubled journey. "I had trained myself to believe, 'I'll only celebrate it when it actually drops on screens.' That was my psychological defence mechanism," he said, explaining that he had witnessed too many release plans collapse at the last minute.
Now that Satluj is finally out, Trehan said the overwhelming response from viewers across the world has made the long wait worthwhile. "The sheer volume of love and global goodwill the film has received is overwhelming," he said, adding that his phone had been buzzing constantly with messages from audiences reacting to the film.
Government reveals reason behind film’s takedown
The Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satluj was taken down from ZEE5 just two days after its release, following a directive from the government citing "security concerns" and obligations under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, according to government sources. The film, which premiered uncut on the streaming platform on Friday, was removed on Sunday evening.
The takedown has sparked widespread reactions, with political parties in Punjab and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) backing the film's release.
A government official said that the makers of Satluj had applied for a certificate with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in 2022 under its original title Punjab '95, but they did not accept the 127 cuts suggested by the censor board and withheld its release.
"They kept sitting on the suggested cuts and eventually released the movie quietly on OTT with a new title. OTT does not come under the CBFC's jurisdiction. When the matter came to the government's notice, Zee was asked to take it (the film) down,” PTI cited the official source.
Why was it taken down from ZEE5?
On Sunday, ZEE5 announced that it had temporarily removed Satluj from its platform for viewers in India. In an official statement, the streaming platform said the film's availability had been put on "pause" in light of "current developments." While reiterating its support for the film and its makers, ZEE5 did not disclose the specific reason behind the decision. Notably, Diljit Dosanjh had predicted that the film could be taken down even before it premiered on the platform.
The platform has not clarified whether the takedown is connected to the film's earlier certification issues and has only cited the ongoing "current developments". Given its politically sensitive subject, Satluj had already faced a prolonged battle over certification, with the makers alleging that the demands extended well beyond routine cuts.
On July 6, ZEE5 issued another statement assuring viewers that it was making every effort to restore the film on the platform. It also appealed to audiences not to resort to piracy while the issue is being resolved.
The film also starring, Arjun Rampal, Saurabh Sachdeva, Kanwaljit Singh and Suvinder Vicky in key roles, is produced by Abhishek Chaubey.
