Director Honey Trehan’s hard-hitting controversial film Punjab ’95, which is based on the life of the Sikh human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, remains stuck with the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification). The filmmaker speaks on this issue in an interview with us.
Your brilliant film on the excesses of the police force during the peak of militancy finds itself stuck with the CBFC. What is the current position of your film and is there any hope for its release?
First of all, thank you so much for calling this a brilliant film. Perhaps, this is what the heads of the CBFC are not getting. The very film talks about both the sides of the coin. We do have good people bad people in each and every field. So, is in the police force and so is in CBFC.
Also the film largely talks about the human rights and how few police officers during the insurgency period of Punjab took the liberty of misusing their power for their own personal benefits and Jaswant Singh Khalra was the whistle-blower to their atrocities. It is akin to the appearance of Krishna as per Hindu mythology. The film being stuck with the CBFC is a very unfortunate thing and legally speaking it’s beyond our understanding.
The entire film is based on legal documents, proceedings, testimonies and all the judgements given by the Honourable Punjab and Haryana High Court, session court, CBI special court, and by the Supreme Court of India. By stopping the release of such film, CBFC is not only challenging the film, they are challenging the constitution/courts of India. They are challenging the democracy of the country, freedom of speech/expression of an artist. It’s a violation of an article 19, 1 (a).
What is the solution?
What Punjab police did in 1995, the CBFC is doing the same thing now by abducting Jaswant Singh Khalra again. But we are here to challenge the darkness and I truly believe justice will happen someday and this film will see the light of the day. How long will the CBFC carry on this radio silence? I do request the central government to intervene and to bring justice to Khalra.
What prompted you to make a film on such a powerful controversial subject?
For me, it was a very inspiring subject and still it is. CBFC has turned it controversial. For me, this is a story of human rights, this is the story of selflessness, the story of sacrifice, martyrdom. This is a story of one of the biggest acts of justice by our constitution; it shows our courts and our constitution in a great light. It gives us the great hope towards justice and strengthens our faith in our constitution in our country. All these reasons, for me, makes this a noble film.
Were you surprised when Punjab 95 got into a censorial imbroglio?
I was shocked by the behaviour of CBFC. Firstly, they refused to believe that any such thing happened. Later, when we submitted all the paperwork, legal documents etc the head of the revising committee had the audacity even to ask, ‘Who speaks the truth so loudly, Trehan?’.
Are you serious?
Yes. So now speaking the truth is becoming a crime in this country for the CBFC. Later even after the matter went to the High Court and their lawyers couldn’t give any convincing arguments on why the film was being stopped, they started putting the pressure on my producers and later my producers were forced to withdraw the matter from the High Court of Mumbai and do out of court settlement. The battle is still going on even after twenty-two months.
How many cuts does the CBFC want to give the police a clean chit?
It started with 21 cuts and we are at 127 plus cuts. Not only that producers were even forced to withdraw the film from TIFF and other film festivals.
That’s the benefit of being a casting director earlier and Taran Bajaj, who also played Dilbag, the assassin, has been a great support in casting. He is also a great actor and independent casting director. I have been blessed with all the actors, truly. The way they put in their faith in me it’s incredible. At times I do feel by not releasing the film it’s a great injustice to their love, trust and to their hard work.
Diljit Dosanjh finds himself in yet another controversial film where he is not only accused of working with the enemy but also being stopped from working in Hindi films. Don’t you think this witch hunting must be discouraged? And why aren’t more of his colleagues speaking up on his behalf?
See, we live in the country where everything becomes political in no time, which we all know. We have seen enough of Diljit Dosanjh by now to understand what kind of a soul he is. At times, the circumstances are not in our control. So, we should be wise enough at times to understand the situation rather than giving a knee jerk reaction. It doesn’t help. Diljit is one of the most loved and the respected global artist from our country who brings the Indian flag on each and every stage he performs on. He brought all the respect to this nation and proved his love for the country time and again. He is someone who gets invited by the honourable Prime Minister of our country and the other countries for his work and achievements. Raising a question on such person’s integrity and intentions makes us small, narrows our thinking.
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