- By Aarushi Raina
- Tue, 18 Mar 2025 03:14 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is disappointed looking at his 1994 film Bandit Queen's OTT version. Seema Biswas, Nirmal Pandey and Manoj Bajpayee starrer movie is avaialbe for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Howver, the filmmaker claimed that it has been cut without his consent. He revealed that the film which is based on the life of Phoolan Devi, has been edited beyond recognition and yet it carries his name as a director. Shekhar questioned whether they would have made such alterations to a Christopher Nolan's film without his permission.
Shekhar Kapur on Bandit Queen's OTT Version
This all started after Shekhar Kapur recently reviewed Netflix's British crime drama miniseries Adolescence on his X handle. After this, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra reacted to his post and wrote, “Nobody will let us do something like that . One should do it as an independent film. Something of our own which is wanders, then stops, digs and goes where the smell takes us." In reponse to Sudhir's comment, Shekhar showed his frustration stating, “I wonder @IAmSudhirMishra 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?"
Expressing his shock over the OTT platform making edits on Bandit Queen with Shekhar Kapur’s permission, director Kunal Kohli reacted to the former's tweet and posted, “Today’s @shekharkapur with your Hollywood successes would be allowed to make it. But the ShekharKapur before Bandit Queen would definitely not be allowed by any OTT to make Bandit Queen the way he wants to. Cutting / Hacking your film without your permission is shocking to say the least."
Joing the ongoing debate of the Bandit Queen OTT version, Hansal Mehta also shared his views. He wrote, "That is the point I’ve been trying to make @shekharkapur. Are we here to foster superior storytelling or to produce cattle-feed ? Leave the good stories, the innovative storytelling, the silences, the slow burn, the experiments, the audacity, the budgets to the superior minds from the west. Welcome back to the days of colonisation."
About Bandit Queen
Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen redefined Indian cinema by presenting the life of Phoolan Devi with bold realism. The 1994 Indian Hindi-language action-adventure movie starred Seema Biswas as the central character. Joining her in the star cast were Nirmal Pandey, Rajesh Vivek, Raghubir Yadav, Aditya Srivastava, Pradeep Gupta, among many others.