Shekhar Kapur’s film tells the true story of the Bandit Queen. Sold into marriage aged 11, she is flailed, beaten, humiliated and repeatedly raped. Phoolan rejects her expected role as doormat to both husband and upper caste, and instead wreaks bloody revenge against those responsible for the brutality of her past. Her five-year run as gang leader in the spectacular scenery of Uttar Pradesh ended in 1983 when, before a cheering crowd of 10,000 supporters, she gave herself up to the police. Screenwriter Mala Sen based the script on interviews with Phoolan and her prison diaries. The film is a violent and moving testimony to a real-life folk heroine.