Updated October 4, 2026
From Ghallughara to Punjab '95 to Satluj: Production History
How Honey Trehan’s Khalra biopic changed titles, fought certification, lost festival slots, and still reached OTT uncut.
If you only know the name Satluj, you're seeing the third public skin of the same film. The title changes aren't marketing — they're scar tissue from a years-long fight with the censors. Here's how one film became three titles.
Ghallughara: The First Title
The project began as Ghallughara — a word heavy with meaning in Punjab, referring to the massacres of Sikhs. Director Honey Trehan started research in 2020, eventually compiling roughly 1,800 pages of material: witness statements, court testimony, cremation records. He co-wrote the script with Utsav Maitra (who also served as associate director), and later Niren Bhatt came aboard; Trehan and Bhatt then developed the script for another year, including a month travelling across Punjab's districts.
Producers Ronnie Screwvala and Abhishek Chaubey backed it through RSVP Movies and MacGuffin Pictures — serious, mainstream money for an uncompromising subject.
Punjab '95: The Forced Rename
When the film went to the Central Board of Film Certification around 2022, the trouble started. According to reporting, the CBFC cleared the film only with 21 cuts and a demand to change the title from Ghallughara to Punjab '95. The makers refused to accept the changes — and the film sat unreleased in India for years.
Other reports put the demanded cuts far higher — over 120, some said 127. Either way, the message was clear: the board wanted a different, softer film. Trehan wouldn't make it.
Satluj: The Release Title
When the film finally premiered — quietly, on ZEE5 on 3 July 2026, in its uncut version — it did so as Satluj. The new title sidestepped the loaded history of the old ones while keeping a Punjabi soul (the Sutlej is Punjab's river). For two days, the uncut film was actually watchable. Then came the 48-hour removal.
Why the Titles Matter
Each rename marks a battle lost or won. Ghallughara was the film as conceived — confrontational, rooted. Punjab '95 was the compromise title the makers rejected. Satluj is the film as it finally escaped — renamed, uncut, and almost immediately pulled again. The full censorship timeline shows how the title fight was just one front in a much longer war.
The Takeaway
When a film changes its name three times before you can watch it, the names are telling you something about the country it was made in. Satluj's titles are a map of what Indian cinema is currently allowed to say — and what it has to smuggle past the gatekeepers.