Bandit Queen tells the story of Phoolan Devi, a lower-caste woman who achieved notoriety when she fought back against sexism and India's abusive caste system. At just 11 years old, Phoolan was forcibly wed to a man who purchased her from her family (cost: a bicycle and a cow). When her new husband beats and rapes her, the traumatized Phoolan runs away. Once she steps off the narrow path that poor women must follow, however, she becomes easy prey for the upper-class and powerful Thakurs. One of their clan, enraged when Phoolan fights off his advances, arranges to have her abducted and raped by a cruel band of outlaws. When the sympathetic bandit Vikram rescues her, the two form their own gang and Phoolan sets out to revenge herself... in the process becoming a heroine to many of her people.

"...Bandit Queen is an astonishing, overpowering piece of rabble-rousing, consciousness-raising, epic-scale filmmaking that unquestionably breaks ground in the Indian cinema in brutal candor if not theme..." Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Director Shekhar Kapur also worked as an actor, and was primarily known for making films in the commercial Bombay cinema. Bandit Queen was financed by Britain's Channel Four, and in fact is banned in India due to its nudity, sex and violence. However, the ban was lifted briefly so the film could be shown to the Film Federation of India. The film is based on Phoonam Devi's memoirs, which she dictated in prison. Now that she is free once again (she spent 10 years in prison) she has disavowed both her earlier writings and the film. Shown at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, and at the 1995 New Directors New Films Festival in New York.