Mumbai, July 7 (IANS) Known for belting out the pop hit ‘Dil Le Gayee’, singer Jasbir Jassi has come out in support of Diljit Dosanjh and the team behind Satluj, praising the film for portraying the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra.
Satluj, which was recently removed from an OTT platform just a day after it premiered, is a biographical drama film directed by Honey Trehan. The film is based on the life of the human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra. It stars Diljit alongside Arjun Rampal, Kanwaljit Singh, Suvinder Vicky and Geetika Vidya Ohlyan.
The film follows Khalra’s investigation into enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings carried out by Punjab Police during the Punjab insurgency of the early 1990s.
Jasbir Jassi shared a video of himself speaking in Punjabi and said it took immense courage to bring Khalra’s story to the screen, and added that “sometimes people are afraid of the truth,” while urging people to stand by truth and humanity.
Talking in Punjabi, Jasbir Jassi said that since the day the film Satluj was released, which was first made as Punjab 95, based on the life of Sardar Jaswant Singh Khalda Sahib, “a lot of media people, media friends were calling to say something about it, because it is a topic of discussion.”
He added: “I don’t think any of the old films have been discussed so much. First of all, I would like to congratulate Honey Trehan. Paaji, you chose this topic, Khalra Sahib’s topic, and chose a topic for the benefit of Punjab. You chose a topic for the benefit of humanity. Congratulations to you.”
Jasbir Jassi said that one needs a lot of courage to make a film like this. He then congratulated Diljit Dosanjh for accepting this role and playing it.
“It was a topic for the benefit of Punjab. It was a topic for the truth of Punjab. Because the people who speak the truth, the people who walk on that path, it is their duty to speak the truth in front of the people. So, congratulations to everyone.”
He then shared, “The people who used to speak against Punjab, they are still speaking against Punjab. I would like to tell them that this is a topic you cannot speak against. Even if it is a hot topic, it is still controversial. This is a topic of humanity. You see, this is a unique topic.”
“When a person leaves his family for the service of humanity, leaves all his work, ignores his life, takes his life for the sake of humanity, Khalra was a hero of that time. I was thinking that you don’t want to talk about Punjabi films. But now you don’t even want to talk about them.”
“This is too much. You want to do more than what Khalra did. And you will not be ashamed. You will not be ashamed, but you should have some respect. You should have some respect for humanity. So, you talked about a great hero, Honey paaji.”
He said that he doesn’t know why the film was banned.
“Why was it banned? Why was it banned from the app? But I think sometimes people are afraid of the truth. It is very difficult to speak the truth. It is very difficult to recognize the truth. It is very difficult to speak the truth. So, to stand with Punjab, Honey Paaji, I appreciate you so much that you stood with Punjab.”
Jasbir Jassi said that he is currently in America and shared that wherever he meets people, they are all talking about that film.
“We have been taught by our Guru that we should stand with the truth. We should stand with the truth. We should stand for Punjab. Punjab stands with the whole world. We should stand with Punjab.”
Jasbir Jassi wrote in the caption in Punjabi: “Eddan dian movies n Songs bnaun Layee Punjabi Jigra chahida hai, Shabashi Bandi aa @honeytrehan bhajiiii @diljitdosanjh veer n team (It takes true Punjabi courage to make films and songs like this. Kudos to Honey Trehan bhaji, Diljit Dosanjh veer, and the entire team.)”
–IANS
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