Killer Queen

THE WARRIOR QUEEN OF JHANSI I India’s Joan of Arc gets a myth-busting biopic.

In India, there’s no child or older person who doesn’t know about Rani Lakshmibai, but we don’t really know her story.” Swati Bhise hopes to change that with her directorial debut, The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi, a historical biopic with aspirations to educate as well as entertain. “What’s interesting is that even people in my age group – late-fifties – all are now coming to me and saying, ‘So can you tell us exactly what her story is?’”

Famed for leading a rebellion against British rule in the mid-19th Century, Rani Lakshmibai’s history is intertwined with legend. The images that persist – of a lone warrior woman riding into battle with a baby strapped to her back, horse reins between her teeth and a sword in each hand; or leaping on horseback from the summit of Jhansi’s Star Fort – may not be entirely based in reality. But what isn’t in question, as far as Bhise is concerned, is Lakshmibai’s revolutionary life.

“She defied every single norm,” says the director, who considered the Rani of Jhansi a role model growing up. “She refused to cut her hair, which was the norm, when she became a widow. She met with British officers, discussed politics and tried to understand what it was that made England function, and she understood that it was economic power. It was greed. This was 1857, but it’s happening today. It’s exactly the same thing.”

With Rupert Everett co-starring as Hugh Rose – the British army officer who led the siege of Jhansi – and Derek Jacobi as then Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, the hardest part was finding a woman who could embody the multilingual warrior queen. The solution had been staring Bhise in the face for 30 years. “I thought, ‘Well, Devika [Bhise, Swati’s daughter] has trained under me for years in acting and classical music and theatre, and is able to ride a horse and work with a sword.’ She was my Rani,

I had no doubt about it.” JF

ETA | 14 DECEMBER / THE WARRIOR QUEEN OF JHANSI RELEASES ON DEMAND THIS MONTH.

SWORDED AFFAIR Devika Bhise (centre) plays Rani Lakshmibai, who became a symbol of resistance to the British Raj.