Shekhar Kapur Claims Bandit Queen On OTT Has Been Cut ‘Beyond Recognition’: ‘Yet It Carries My Name…’
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur claimed that the film Bandit Queen on OTT has been cut without his consent, questioning whether they would make similar alterations to a Christopher Nolan film.
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur expressed his frustration that his 1994 film ‘Bandit Queen’ on Amazon Prime Video has been cut without his consent. He said that the OTT version of the film has been edited beyond recognition, and yet it carries his name as a director. He highlighted the disrespect towards his vision as the film’s director and questioned whether they would make similar alterations to a Christopher Nolan film without his permission. Bandit Queen, based on the life of Phoolan Devi, starred Seema Biswas in the lead role.
The conversation around this began after Shekhar Kapur lauded the Netflix miniseries ‘Adolescence’ on X (previously Twitter). Filmmaker Sudhir Mishra reacted to the 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 response, Shekhar Kapur wrote, “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?"
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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… https://t.co/LoYtkddlvp— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) March 18, 2025
Director Kunal Kohli expressed his shock over the OTT platform cutting Bandit Queen without Shekhar Kapur’s permission. Responding to Shekhar’s tweet, Kunal wrote, “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."
Meanwhile, Hansal Mehta 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."
Bandit Queen won the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in Hindi, in 1995. It was also selected as the Indian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
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