Film tributes to 'Bandit Queen'

Seema Biswas played the Bandit Queen in the film

The director of the film Bandit Queen has paid tribute to the woman who inspired the story, Phoolan Devi, who was shot dead on Wednesday.

Shekhar Kapoor made the film about the life of Devi as India's most notorious outlaw.

The 1994 film became a worldwide hit and propelled Devi and Kapoor to worldwide recognition.

She had the innocence and the hope of the young

Shekhar Kapoor
Film's director

"I had to lock myself in to come to terms with the news that Phoolan Devi has been gunned down," Kapoor wrote in the Times of India on Thursday.

Kapoor, who also directed Oscar-winning film Elizabeth, said people forgot about the threat to her life because she had put her past behind her.

Devi was a sitting MP at the time of her death, but was notorious for being involved in the killing of 22 upper-caste men in 1981 who had allegedly raped her.

Kapoor: Film established him in Hollywood

"Over the years, the extent of security was scaled down because everywhere - and most of all in her - there was this feeling that she had moved on to a new life."

"But of course, Behmai [where the massacre took place] was always there."

The pair first met when Devi came out of prison in 1994, and he was struck by her innocence, Kapoor said.

"She would giggle a lot, she was like a little girl. I got the feeling of a person revisiting her lost childhood.

"She had the innocence and the hope of the young."

Devi: "Amazed" at the film portrayal of her

The actress who played Devi in the film, Seema Biswas, also spoke of her shock at the murder.

"I cannot believe that she is no more," she told the newspaper.

"Nobody can fully understand how I feel because nobody can understand how personally I took this role.

"I always thought she was living a happy life, a well settled existence. But you never know."

Biswas says Devi told her: "I have undergone a lot of trauma in real life but I am amazed at the way you portrayed me. I feel that it's me."