Here comes the Bandit Queen of Bihar. Shakuntala Devi, who had become a symbol of terror in past is all set to make her debut appearance in Bhojpuri movies. Popularly known as Phoolan Devi of Bihar, her Life strikes resemblance with Phoolan Devi.Shakuntla has spent over 5 years in Jail on account of different criminal charges ranging from Murder to Dacoity.
The movie titled Shakuntala after her name, will have her role played by herself only.It is being produced and directed by Vinod Kumar Singh and has actors like Raza Murad and Awadesh Mishra in it.
Her early life shows, she was gang-raped in her teenage due to some land feud.Her father was murdered by her uncle and she was raped in order to disherit her of the family property and ancestral land.
A resident of Balanpatti village in Madhubani, Shakuntala accused her uncle of hatching a plot to kill her father to grab his 18-kattha land.”My father was a simpleton who was killed by none other than his own brother,” she said, and added that her uncle continued to torment her family even after her father’s death.
“My uncle tried to browbeat me into giving away the land to him,” she said, “He got me gangraped when I refused.” Her uncle went on to arrange her marriage with a 55-year-old man when she was still in her teens. “Faced with such injustice, I got in touch with a few dacoits in the area, but even they tried to exploit me. Then I decided to raise my own sena (army) to fight for the oppressed women’s cause,” she added.
With the help of the local police, her uncle tried to implicate her in several criminal cases which made her languish behind the bars for months. “For almost five years, I was in jail – coming in and out of it. But one lucky day, I was finally absolved of all the charges.” She said she had taken up arms only to protect the innocent, particularly women, who face exploitation almost every day.
Shakuntala, who belongs to a low caste, turned to singing after she came out of jail. “Since I could sing, I started cutting out Bhojpuri, Maithili and other music albums,” she said.
“I have so far made five albums in different languages. But this is the first time I am acting in a movie,” she added. She also dabbled in politics by joining the Samajwadi Party first and the Janata Dal (United) later. “My ultimate motto in life is to serve the society,” she said.
It was her reputation of a ‘helpful’ bandit that brought Shakuntala’s producer- director close to her. “I had heard of Shakuntala as someone who used to help the needy,” Vinod Kumar Singh said.
He decided to make a film on her when he came to know the real story of her life. “She had the guts to take up arms against her oppressors. But there must be thousands of other women who don’t raise their voice against similar injustice. Most women, in her place, would have chosen to commit suicide, but she fought back,” he said