The removal of Diljit Dosanjh-starrer Satlaj (formerly titled Punjab ’95) within 48 hours of its release has reignited conversations around censorship and creative freedom in Indian cinema. The decision has found little favour within the film fraternity, with several actors and filmmakers questioning the withdrawal of a certified film and backing its makers. Actor Tillotama Shome believes the current debate is part of a much larger challenge that storytellers have faced across generations.
Sharing her thoughts on censorship, Shome says, “Whether it’s the restraints of censorship, whether it is the difficulty of mounting a film that the financiers or producers or distributors feel like it won’t have an audience, these are part of the challenge of storytelling, and they’ve been there from time immemorial.” The actor believes every era presents storytellers with a different set of obstacles.
“In every civilization, there’s been a dominant voice. And there’s been an emerging voice. The challenge, the struggle for something new to take the place of something old, has always existed. When something new emerges, there’s excitement about it, and then it becomes established, loses its flexibility, and once again makes way for something else.”
She adds: “This kind of rub between something that’s established and something that’s emerging, these challenges have always existed. And yet storytelling hasn’t died. Because as human beings, it’s an elemental need to have stories, to remember the past, to make sense of the present, and to feel a sense of hope for the future. Various challenges will emerge at various times to make that difficult, but the urge to tell a story, the need to tell a story, and the need to hear a story will always, I think, survive, no matter how difficult it gets.”
Reflecting on her own career, Shome says one of her biggest struggles was not censorship but finding an audience in India. Long before Indian viewers embraced her through Sir, Delhi Crime and Kota Factory, several of her films had already travelled internationally and enjoyed successful theatrical runs overseas. “Quite a few of my films have done very well in the international theatrical distribution. But they didn’t have the same reach in my own country. I used to feel very bad about it at that time because I felt that no one really saw my work in India. But that changed when I started working on OTT platforms. When Sir released, I suddenly felt a sense of kinship not just with my colleagues in the industry, but also with the audience in my own country,” she says.
Currently seen in Ikka, Shome says her career has taught her that change is the only constant in the entertainment industry. “I did Monsoon Wedding, we shot it on film. The next film I did after that, the world went digital. I was told cinema is dead. This was 25 years ago. I was only 20 and I actually believed it because people around me kept saying, ‘Cinema is dead. Film is over’,” she ends.