It was an offer Seema Parihar couldn’t resist for long. A film where she only had to play herself — ‘‘bandit queen’’ of the ravines of Chambal — and relate the story of a timid 13-year-old turning into a dreaded dacoit.Director Krishna Mishra had a real-life plot but he also wanted the real protagonist to tell the story. Wounded, to be released on October 10, trails Seema’s childhood and the 18 years of her life in the ravines before she surrendered in 2000.Seema, 35, had 29 charges against her, including murder and kidnapping, when she surrendered. Now, after a series of legal battles and four years in jail in Etawah, she has only 14 charges pending against her. Kolkata-based Mishra faced a long legal battle before Seema could get bail to act in the film.‘‘We have shown in the film how society compelled her to take up the gun and become a dacoit,’’ Mishra said at a press conference today. ‘‘We shot the film at her house at Bhabain village in UP which was demolished by the police. We later went to locations at her area of operation in Kanpur Dehat, Etawah etc.’’ Mishra has been assistant to film maker Basu Bhattacharya and has produced films such as Akele Hum Akele Tum in Hindi and Champion in Bengali. With Wounded, he debuts as director.‘‘I read about her in newspapers and I thought I would make a film about her and she would do the lead herself. Because I knew the way she would act in her own role, no actress would be able to do that. When I met her at Etawah jail, she refused to act but later I convinced her. I had to fight a long legal battle to get her released on bail to act in the film,’’ Mishra said.Seema accepted the role because she wanted to depict how women in her village were tortured and compelled to become dacoits. ‘‘I was 13 when I was kidnapped. It was all a conspiracy hatched by the Thakurs of the village,’’ she said. Seema has quite a few offers from various political parties to join them but she has not yet made up her mind. ‘‘I will take a decision later,’’ she said. Meanwhile, she wants to build an organisation which can rescue women who have become dacoits in the ravines.
