Actor Gul Panag publicly supported Satluj after its sudden removal from ZEE5.
Panag recalled her childhood during the violent Punjab militancy era.
She stated that banning films is counterproductive and urged the public to debate and critique rather than censor.
Satluj row: The ban and abrupt removal of the film Satluj (formerly Punjab '95) from the streaming platform ZEE5 sparked a huge uproar, with several prominent figures from the Indian entertainment industry, including Anurag Kashyap, Ram Gopal Varma, Ranvir Shorey and Anurag Basu, questioning the sudden takedown, censorship and raising concerns about the suppression of free expression in India. Bollywood actor Gul Panag has weighed in on the latest controversy, backing the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer.
Gul Panah shares memories of Punjab militancy
Gul Panag shared her childhood memories of Punjab during the militancy era on X (formerly Twitter). She witnessed both insurgent violence and alleged human rights abuses.
She said these early experiences make it imperative that such stories reach the public.
"I grew up in Punjab during the brutal years of militancy. I remember reading newspaper headlines about buses being stopped and innocent passengers being pulled out and killed," she wrote.
"I also remember accounts of young men being picked up, detained and tortured, despite having nothing to do with the movement. Including from my village," she added.
Panag is against suppressing difficult history. She said, "Those memories are precisely why I don’t believe we should become so uncomfortable with difficult chapters of our history that we stop telling stories about them."
Banning is counterproductive
She also called the move to ban the film counterproductive.
She said, "A film isn’t a history textbook. It tells a story through one lens and one perspective. Debate it. Critique it. Counter it. Banning it is always counter productive."
"But don’t assume Punjab’s hard-won rejection of separatism is so fragile that a film can reverse it!!," added The Family Man actress.
Satluj story
Satluj is about human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who exposed extrajudicial killings and cremations during the insurgency period in Punjab. Khalra discovered proof of 25,000 bodies disposed of as "unclaimed" during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was abducted from outside his home in Amritsar on September 6, 1995 and was killed extrajudicially.
