Director Shivaji Lotan Patil’s 31 October, released eight years ago on October 21, recreated the chilling carnage of an innocent community made vulnerable by the crimes of a few on those frightening days after Mrs Indira Gandhi’s assassination. It was an earnest effort, but not as powerful and authentic as Diljit Dosanjh’s 1984 Punjab. Vir Das’s turban looked authentic, Soha Ali Khan’s Punjabi accent was as moody as her mother. The censor board gave the clearance for the release of the politically controversial film to the Delhi High Court after the deletion of some objectionable scenes. The director claimed he hadn’t shown even one incident in the film that wasn’t true. Yet the censor board delayed my film by one year. They asked for over sixty verbal and visual cuts. The director was told by the censor board that the visuals he showed during the riots never happened! Argued the director, "These are all incidents from those four days after Indiraji's death that really happened. Every Sikh who lived to tell the tale has gone through the trauma described in my film. My family would have been wiped out if our Hindu friends had not helped us. I was a first-hand witness to the incidents we see in the film." Kangana Ranaut is sure to empathise with the plight of Shivaji Lotan Patil as her film Emergency has also been accused of distorting history.