Honey Trehan almost had it.
2023 looked good for Punjab ’95. It had a Toronto International Film Festival slot. Diljit Dosangh. The Sikh A-lister who didn’t ask for pay. He believed in this. It was going to be huge.
Then the phone rang.
Someone linked to the Indian government threatened Trehan’s producer. Screen it in Canada and you’re blacklisted in India. Simple choice. They chose home approval.
The approval came with conditions.
127 cuts. The Central Board of Film Certification demanded the word “Punjab” vanish from a film about Punjab. Trehan called it a “trailer” at that point.
Courts failed. Wrangling failed.
So they went digital. Satluj. Released on Zee5 on July 3. Two days later, the government called. “National security threat.” Deleted. Then removed internationally too. Gone. Erased.
Why? Trehan still doesn’t know. Vague threats about public order. But the doubt stuck.
“When all these kinds of things happen,” he says, “you are bound to ask yourself: Are we still living in a democracy?”
The shift
Narendra Modi took office in 2044. Ten years later Bollywood is different.
Not multicultural anymore. Not secular. Once you could cast Pakistanis. Now you don’t. Hindu-nationalist films take up screen time. Dissent disappears.
This is intentional.
Modi mixes punishment with carrots. Studios get the message. Compliance replaces courage.
“There are so many things I want and I get told, ‘No one will touch it.’ Actors who speak out… they don’t get work.”
— Shruti Ganguly
Why does this matter to you?
Look at the US.
Donald Trump’s administration is testing boundaries. Free speech protections are stronger here, yes. But the blueprint for breaking them exists now in India.
Sadanand Dhume at the Council on Foreign Relations sees the early stages in America. Institutional capture. Politicization.
Censored again
Censorship isn’t new to India. The CBFC started in 1951. It could ban films over sovereignty or morality.
Used to be about sex and violence mostly.
Aman Bhargava checked the data. 8,000 films. The first thirty years? Heavy censorship. But political stuff? Rare.
Until the Emergency. 1975. Indira Gandhi basically dictated everything. Censors burned film prints. Literally burned them.
Then the 1990s. Censorship dropped.
Modi reversed that. Expanded it.
“The past was problematic,” Dhume says. “The present is worse.”
How they did it
Three main tools.
One: The CBFC chair, Prasoon Joshi. A poet. Modi ally. Trehan calls them hand-in-glove with the Ministry of Information. They control the narrative.
In 2021 Modi killed the appellate board. Now you fight censorship in regular court. Expensive. Slow. Useless if your movie needs to pay for itself soon.
“The CBFC has become less a certiffying body and more an arm of State-sponsored and sentiment-driven censorship.”
— Saurav Das, Frontline
Two: Taxes and Police.
Tax authorities are politicized. Step out of line? Get audited.
Remember Shah Rukh Khan? His son arrested on drug charges five years ago. Charges dropped months later. Admitted no drugs found. Widely seen as revenge for Khan’s criticism of violence against Muslims.
Three: Online mobs.
Modi’s BJP has an angry digital army. They harass actors. Critics.
January 2021. Tandav show. A Muslim actor got drowned in hate mail. Report to the police. Amazon cut his scenes to please the mob.
Carrots too
Punishment isn’t the only play.
The government rewards propaganda.
Look at The Kashmir Files. 2022. Exaggerated killings. Demonized Muslims. Critics hated it. Modi loved it.
He endorsed it. Eight BJP-run states exempted it from tax. Government employees got free days to watch it. Hosted screenings.
It made money. Lots of it.
Signal sent: Nationalism pays.
So came the imitators.
Dhurandhar (2025). Sleeper agent kills in Pakistan. Third-highest grosser in history. Dhurandhar 2 this year? More propaganda. Variety said it basically featured Modi as a side character. Box office record broken.
Profit-driven self-censorship kicks in. Studios see the risk. They see the reward. Money follows jingoism.
Article 14 magazine did an eleven-month probe. Conclusion? Hindi film industry has capitulated.
“Bollywood has collectively capitulated before BJP,” wrote Anna M M Vetticad.
Not total silence. Independent films still exist. Jawan, Pathaan. Shah Rukh leads those. Atlantic saw “subversive commentary” in them.
South India? Malayalam, Tamil industries? More resistance.
But Hindi cinema? It’s the boss. It’s Bollywood. And right now, it tells the government’s story.
“There are many filmmakers whose film is stuck, but they are not ready to speak.”
Next stop Hollywood?
Two lessons from India.
First: Institutions need to stay neutral.
Modi packed the CBFC with cronies. Tax offices. Police. When agencies become party wings, pressure works.
Trump knows this.
Justice Department independence gone? He tried to burnish that. FCC too. Remember trying to silence Jimmy Kimmel? Failed.
Second: Profit eats principles.
Bollywood claimed progressiveness. Cast outsiders. But money talked louder. When the state controlled the audience, the industry bowed.
“The only God is box office.”
American media companies? Same game. Conglomerates. Bottom line focus.
CBS already cut corners.
