By drax on Skatehive
The Indian cinema industry is famously the biggest in the world, at least in terms of sheer feature films produced, much outpacing Hollywood in volume. For many decades, this state of affairs existed, yet despite that industrial might, there are relatively few Indian filmmakers that actually managed to become known outside its boundaries and became household names in global cinema. Usually, it takes extraordinary talents or extraordinary films to break such boundaries. In this regard, Shekhar Kapur managed to do that with his 1994 crime biopic Bandit Queen, an Indian film dedicated to truly extraordinary real-life personality Phoolan Devi. The film is based on India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi, a 1991 book by British Indian human rights activist Mala Sen. Sen partially based her work on prison interviews with Phoolan Devi (1963 – 2001), an Indian lady dacoit (bandit) whose Robin Hood-like exploits caused much controversy but also made her a popular figure among lower