Bandit Shakuntala is a bilingual (Hindi and English) Hindi Biography film that initially premiered at the Berlin Internation Film Festival from 16 February to 28 February 2023.

The biopic revolves around the story of a dreaded dacoit Shakuntala of Madhubani.

The English version of the film will be premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival from 16 May 2023 to 27 May 2023. The film will have a Worldwide release in June 2023, tentatively on 28 June.

Cast and Crew

Hyder Kazmi is the Director and one of the Producers of Bandit Shakuntala. The other producers are Liaquat Gola, Upendra Kumar, Pintu Kumar, and Sharwan Prasad.

Shivram Yadav is the Writer, Jagminder Singh Hundal is the Cinematographer, and Ballu Saluja is the Film Editor of Bandit Shakuntala.

Cast 

Shakuntala Mahto herself plays the titular role in Bandit Shakuntala. The film also features Hyder Kazmi, Omkar Das Manikpuri, Pratibha Yashpal Sharma, and Abhimanyu Singh in pivotal roles. Akshay Verma and Shadab Rahbar Khan play supporting roles in Bandit Shakuntala.

Movie Plot

Shakuntala (Shakutantala Mahto) borns in Madhubani, Bihar, India, in a lower cast family. Her childhood suffers cruel poverty and humiliation being poor and helpless.

Shakuntala tries to make her life better by studying hard. However, the village chief brutally rapes her when she is only twelve. Shakuntala wants justice, but she receives only humiliation and dishonor from society.

She has to marry a drunkard under the acute pressure of family and society. However, the marriage does not last. The village Chief once again rapes her with a mob of villagers.

Nadeem (Hyder Kazmi), an outlaw bandit, rescues her. Shakuntala now learns how to avenge herself. She takes take gun in hand and starts an endless journey for justice and retribution.