Ace filmmaker Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen's name is included in the list of the most controversial movies in the history of Hindi cinema. The story of dacoit Phoolan Devi was shown in this movie. After running for some time in theatres, the censor board and the government banned this movie. However, the makers knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court of India and fought for his rights. After such a run and glorious years of recognition, the director of this film, Shekhar Kapur took to his X profile to express disappointment over its digital version.
What did Shekhar Kapur write?
For the unversed, Bandit Queen is available to watch on the OTT platform in today's time. Recently, Shekhar has watched his film online and has expressed his displeasure over it. The reason for this is the editing of the film and cutting of some scenes without his consent in the OTT version. 'I wonder if OTT platforms would let me make #BanditQueen the way I made it years ago. The Bandit Queen on #AmazonPrime is unrecognisable from my film. Someone has cut it beyond recognition. And yet it carries my name as Director. And no one asked me! Are we lesser beings than Western Directors? Would they have the guts to cut a Chris Nolan film without his permission?'
In this way, Shekhar Kapur lashed out at the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video for tampering with his film.
Hansal Mehta reacts
Another award-winning director, Hansal Mehta also reacted to Kapur's tweet and wrote, 'It is sad to know that a film that should always be India’s pride gets treated this way. But then what’s new? We’ve become so used to being treated as slaves of the West. No protest. No pushback. Total submission. Because they are doing us a favour. Our integrity as artists is neither protected by us nor by a guild that could potentially protect us. The so-called ‘association’ is busy behaving like a political party or stoking divisive propaganda. In the meanwhile directors are rendered powerless and bereft of any support system. Maybe your status as one of the country's foremost artistic spokespersons to the world and as a government-decorated Padmabhushan will help bring about change. Until then back to our submissive selves? Members of the new content-driven colony that creates cattle feed to drive subscriptions while fulfilling the artistic ambitions of its Western masters.'
Bandit Queen was a box-office success
Of course, Bandit Queen was banned across the country. But Shekhar Kapur was praised for the courage he showed in making this movie. This movie was on the big screen for only a few weeks, and in that time it rocked the box office in terms of earnings and achieved success. The film Bandit Queen was released in theatres in 1994. Actress Seema Biswas played the role of Phoolan Devi in ??this movie. Veteran actor Manoj Bajpayee made his debut in Hindi cinema with this film.