Four months after ZEE5 was made to pull down Honey Trehan’s period crime drama Satluj, director Honey Trehan has strongly objected to new guidelines issued by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). After the newly constituted board issued five new directives as part of its advisory on Monday, Trehan took to his Instagram Stories to raise his concerns about the same.“New guidelines show and underline the cowardice and the dictatorship in the country, not the democratic approach towards the freedom of speech (camera emoji),” wrote Trehan on Instagram. After the CBFC delayed certifying Satluj for years, the makers dropped it on ZEE5 in July earlier this year, with lead actor Diljit Dosanjh even suspecting it wouldn’t stay on the streaming platform long.Initially titled Punjab ’95, the biopic of Sikh human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra was released on ZEE5 as Satluj. But Diljit’s suspicion wasn’t misplaced, as the film was pulled down from ZEE5 within a couple of days. The Central government flagged national security concerns about the film, even though the makers maintained that wasn’t the case.A couple of months after that, the CBFC was reconstituted after a gap of nine years, even though the designated term is of three years. Now chaired by former Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the film body now consists of renowned members like actors Preity Zinta, Pankaj Tripathi, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Rupali Ganguly, Manoj Joshi, Pallavi Joshi, and Suniel Shetty, filmmaker Priyadarshan, music composer Ricky Kej, and producer Supriya Yarlagadda, among others.Since its reconstitution, the CBFC issued its first advisory on Monday, which stated that incomplete works wouldn’t be entertained for certification. It also said that announced release dates and promotional titles wouldn’t be considered binding. Titles will remain subject to scrutiny, review and modification by the examining or revising committee, asserted the CBFC.Notice to CBFC, Centre over Sunny Deol’s SuryaaMeanwhile, Delhi High Court on Monday issued notice to the Centre and the CBFC, along with Zee Studios for bankrolling M Padmakumar’s crime thriller Suryaa: Ant Se Aarambh Tak, headlined by Sunny Deol. Ahead of the film’s scheduled release date of November 20, the Delhi HC acted on a plea filed by a group of doctors alleging that the movie portrays doctors in private hospitals as corrupt and encourages violence against healthcare professionals.The four doctors, who filed the plea, flagged the inaction of authorities in respect of the movie teaser, and said the threat posed by such unverifiable and defamatory content is not speculative. “By promoting violence against frontline healthcare workers, who already face attacks from disgruntled family members of patients while supporting the nation’s healthcare infrastructure, the teaser creates a real danger to doctors in corporate hospitals,” it said.Story continues below this adThey further objected to the teaser of Suryaa presenting its storyline as being “inspired by unbelievable true events” and the “shocking truth” about the medical system, despite allegedly being based on a fictional narrative. They alleged that the teaser accuses doctors of overcharging patients, prescribing unnecessary tests, and taking commissions.Also Read: Sanjay Gupta’s wife defends ‘grieving’ daughter for showing middle finger to paparazziWhile they’ve demanded not only a stay on the film, but also the teaser to be pulled down from YouTube, the Delhi HC has not passed any order yet. After seeking the response of the producers, the CBFC, and the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, it has scheduled the next hearing for November 16, four days before the film’s scheduled release date.