Page 34 - The Indian EYE 092526

CANADA Newsline SEPTEMBER 25, 2026 | The Indian Eye 34

Reimagining Phoolan:

Richie Mehta on Violence, Humanity

and the Making of His New Film

BY RENU MEHTA even younger viewers could watch it.
Teenagers could watch it, and people
Toronto
who were her age could watch this,
hoolan Devi’s story has already and may be ask the right questions
been told many times. From coming out of it.
PBandit Queen to numerous Q: How did you cast the actress who
books, documentaries and adapta- plays Phoolan?
tions, the life of India’s famed “Bandit Richie Mehta: It was laborious,
Queen” has long occupied a compli- but I have to hand it to my amazing
cated place in the public imagination. casting director, Mukesh Chhabra,
Film maker Richie Mehta is who just did the work. He and his
bringing that story to the Toronto In- team held workshops and auditions
ternational Film festival (TIFF) and across various regions of Central India
talks on why he initially resisted tell- and eventually found Sneha Kumari,
ing the Phoolan story, the decision to who we thought beautifully encapsu-
focus on one defining chapter of her lated the spirit of what we were trying
life, and the emotional and physical Courtesy TIFF to show. It was the first film she’s ever
demands of bringing it to the screen. done. She had extensive theatre expe-
For the Toronto based direc- leave me alone. They had acquired I can with it. rience in the region, and we did more
tor, revisiting that story was never the rights to her autobiography and Q: Why was it important to com- workshops with her. We also worked
part of the original plan who initially approached me about directing a press her story into such an intense peri- with Aakash Dahiya, who’s essentially
questioned whether he was the right project based on it. od rather than tell her entire life? her right hand during the assault, one
person to tell such a deeply Indian I told them I didn’t think I was the Richie Mehta: The more we ex- of her trusted men.
story. But after years of persistence right person, and I persisted on that plored telling her life story which, as We had them all work closely to-
from the film’s producers, extensive track for a long time. But they were you said, has been told in different gether, along with a couple of months
research and a process of rethinking very, very nice people and just kept incarnations, the more blatantly obvi- of commando training that everyone
how Phoolan’s life could be represent- persisting the opposite and eventually ous it became to me that you would received. By the end of that, we could
ed without exploiting her trauma, he wore me down. have to show certain chapters in her really see the people we were trying to
eventually found his way in. I read the material because I life that, in my view, are unshowable. represent.
Rather than attempt to chron- wanted to read her words and under- You can’t just skip over those Q: Did you have to do extensive
icle her entire life, Mehta chose to stand her perspective. There was a things when you’re showing some- workshops, particularly for the action
focus on one defining episode, using whole process to it. I worked with my one’s entire life because they are cru- sequences?
a focused, intensely personal story to brother for a while, along with anoth- cial to the formation of who that per- Richie Mehta: Absolutely. The
explore the larger forces that shaped er writer, Anu Singh.. son becomes. action is very much about rehearsal
Phoolan Devi. We explored various incarnations For me, it was a cardinal rule that and planning. It’s geography-based
Here, he talks about that decision, of the story, and for a while none of we would never, ever show the sexu- and story-based.
discovering first-time actor Sneha Ku- them were working. I remained un- al violence. I just don’t think it was in I had written the action a certain
mari, creating the film’s oppressive sure throughout the process whether any way right to do that. way, then we found the location and
action sequences, and the emotional I was even the right person to be in- With that omission, I couldn’t adapted the action to it. Amritpal
toll of immersing himself in Phoolan’s volved. quite wrap my head around what to Singh, our action director and stunt
autobiography. Eventually, I had the idea to show and what the relevance of her coordinator, was incredible with his
Q: Phoolan’s story has been told distill her story down and centralize story today could be in that context team. We just worked it out together.
many times, starting with Bandit Queen. it around one major incident. That until I zeroed in on that particular I wanted the action to feel experi-
Why did you want to tell her story again? opened up all kinds of possibilities of incident, which is one chapter of her ential and oppressive. Every moment,
Richie Mehta: I didn’t want to at what we could explore and what I felt book. you as a viewer should feel the weight
the outset. As you said, the story had was relevant to who she was and what I felt it encapsulated everything of what they are doing to her.
been told many times. And I thought, she might represent. she was up against. It represented the You can take it personally as
‘Who the hell am I to tell it as an NRI I kept saying to myself, If anyone macrocosm of the world she was fight- much as the film allows you to in two
Punjabi from Toronto?’ wants to do it, they can. Please. And ing against. dimensions. I wanted that weight to
But there were these amazing nobody did. If we did it right, despite the fact keep pummelling down on you so you
producers in India from Namah Pic- Eventually, I thought, Okay, well, that there is some violence, but it is understood the pressure she was feel-
tures - Shareen Mantri, Kanwal Kohli nobody’s going to do it, so I’ll do it. I’ll war violence, the kind of violence ing. Hopefully, we’ve achieved that.
and Kishore Arora - who just wouldn’t hope for the best and do the very best you’ve seen before in films. I felt that Continued on next page... >>

www.TheIndianEYE.com