With each passing day, a new development around ‘Satluj’ creates headlines. The biopic of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, starring Diljit Dosanjh, Kanwaljit Singh, Arjun Rampal and Savinderpal Vicky, among others, was among the highest-rated Indian films on the popular rating aggregator IMDb, until the ratings mysteriously disappeared.
‘Satluj’s 9.5 rating goes missing
When we checked the rating aggregator website on Wednesday afternoon, ratings were readily available for other recent releases such as Akshay Kumar’s ‘Welcome To The Jungle’. However, the 9.5 rating for ‘Satluj’ previously titled ‘Panjab ’95’ was missing entirely.The film has been at the centre of a massive controversy ever since it was dropped last week on Zee5, only to be pulled down within two days. Before that, the Honey Trehan-directorial had already been stuck in limbo for years, with the Censor Board originally asking for 127 cuts. Both Honey and Trehan had reportedly refused to have their names associated with the film if even a single cut had been made.
‘Satluj’ writer Niren Bhatt on the missing rating
In a conversation with HT City, ‘Satluj’s writer Niren Bhatt, he said he had no idea how or why the rating disappeared, telling the publication, “Film kab aane wali thi, kab chali gayi humein pata nahi chala. Ab yeh IMDb rating ka… kisko problem tha, kya problem tha, koi communication hi nahi tha.” (We had no idea when the film was going to release or when it was pulled down. And now about this IMDb rating… who had an issue with it, what the issue was, there has been absolutely no communication. )
Sanjay Gupta comments on the ratings removal of ‘Satluj’
Filmmaker Sanjay Gupta also took note of the sudden removal of the film’s rating, sharing his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) this Wednesday. Expressing his skepticism, he highlighted that the movie held a stellar 9.5 rating just a day prior before vanishing completely. Gupta remarked that while he has never truly trusted or relied on these digital aggregator metrics, this incident serves as proof of how fabricated and unreliable they can be.
‘Satluj’s piracy on the rise
‘Satluj’s lead actor Diljit Dosanjh had conducted an Instagram Live session following the film’s removal from ZEE5 on Sunday. During the session, he encouraged people to circulate links to the film if they had already downloaded it, stating that it was no longer possible to stop the film from spreading. The OTT platform later shared a statement on social media, requesting viewers to wait until the platform brings the film back, and urging them to abstain from consuming pirated copies of ‘Satluj’ in the meantime.
