Phoolan Devi sued the producer director for 50 lakhs. She stated they did not take her permission to make the film and defamed her .
The film was originally titled Kahani Phoolan Ki. But the censor board forced the producer to change the film's title.
The actors refused to dub for the film until Ashok Roy cleared his dues.
In 1983 a article was posted about Hollywood actress Susie Bono, wife of singer Sonny Bono. Susie Coelho Bono, wife of entertainer Sonny Bono, flew to India last month to win the confidence of an imprisoned woman bandit and gain permission to play her life story on screen.It was a bold adventure for Susie, whose parents are both Indian-born. A native of England, reared in Boston and Washington, D.C., Susie is a model bent on becoming an actress. Last February she read a newspaper account of bandit queen Phoolan Devi, 24, who surrendered to police after being involved in an ambush in which 20 men were slaughtered.For Susie it was the opportunity of a lifetime.Susie is a slender, stunning looking, dark-skinned young woman in her 20s with flashing black eyes and jet black hair. Susie would be labeled 'ethnic' in casting offices. It would be difficult to cast her as an American girl. Bo Derek she isn't. But Susie possesses her own exotic beauty and her English is flawless.She also is bright as new paint, volatile and talented.The moment she spied an Indian woman as a cause celeb, Susie pounced on the possibilities of building a movie around Phoolan and her adventures. Susie had never been to India, did not speak the language and, until recently, had been half-ashamed of her heritage. As a youngster she wanted to be the girl-next-door cheerleader type.I dreamed of being blond, blue-eyed, big-boobed and with hips and calves like American girls,' Susie said. 'I had to wear six pairs of socks so my boots would fit. I made Twiggy look sexy. It wasn't easy growing up an Indian in this country. I didn't want to be different. It was only a couple of years ago, after marrying Sonny, that I could deal with the fact that I'm exotic. Finally I took pride in being Indian and it changed my life.'It was with trepidation that Susie set out to meet Phoolan, imprisoned at the small town of Gwalior, 400 miles from New Delhi.En route to India, Susie stopped by Paris to pick up Indian-born French journalist Rakesh Mathur to act as her guide and interpreter.'We waited in Gwalior six days,' Susie recounted. 'During that time I did a lot of research on Phoolan. She was a dacoit, that's an Indian term for bandit gang members involved in long-running feuds. 'I learned Phoolan was married off by her parents to a 40-year-old man when she was only 11. When the marriage ended she was kidnapped by dacoits and raped. She eventually became the mistress of the gang leader.'When the leader was killed, Phoolan became the bandit queen and swore revenge for her lover's death by wiping out his dacoit killers.'Susie eventually was admitted to the prison and befriended Phoolan, winning her confidence and permission to write Phoolan's story and star in a film version. Susie smuggled a tape recorder into Phoolan's quarters and spent four hours a day for two weeks taping her story. She met Phoolan's family and became acquainted with her dacoit gang members, also imprisoned.'Phoolan told me the whole dramatic story,' Susie said, a couple of days after her return. 'It's much more dramatic than the newspaper and magazine stories.'We became good friends. In fact, by the time I'd finished interviewing, I felt as if we were sisters. I even smuggled a camera into the prison and took some wonderful pictures.Phoolan's prison was clearly not a maximum security establishment. People wander in and out with apparent ease -everyone but Phoolan.According to Susie there are some authorities and enemy dacoits who would exterminate the bandit queen should she leave the premises.Bureaucratic red tape is evidently as common in India as in America. Phoolan's crimes are punishable by 40 years' imprisonment in the Indian state in which they were committed. But she negotiated her surrender -attended by hundreds -in another state where she may only get five years.Phoolan has yet to come to trial and, says Susie, it may be a long time indeed before the legal hassles are resolved.'I want to get this book written quickly,' Susie said. 'It may help Phoolan's cause. I hope some day to get her out of India and bring her here to the United States. She would like that too
Rita Bhaduri claimed that the film was based a on a doctor who became a dacoit. It was not based on Phoolan Devi. It was the director who decided to cash in on her and name the film after her.