Plot

Two young women follow completely divergent paths in the new, modernizing India-one wants to become Miss India, the other is a fierce Hindu Nationalist prepared to kill and die for her beliefs.

Ruhi Singh is a small town girl with big city dreams. She sets off to Bombay to win the title of Miss India--a launching pad to fame and a surefire way to stand out in a country of 1.2 billion people. Just hours from the Miss India beauty boot camp is another training ground for girls--that of the Durga Vahini, a Hindu nationalist group exclusively for women. Here we meet Prachi Trivedi, a young, fearsome drill sergeant training Indian girls to fight against Western culture, Islam and Christianity by any means necessary including violence. Gliding back and forth between the action of the two camps, the dreams and conflicts of India and young Indian women are laid bare-- the two opposing worlds aren't as far away from each other as they seem.—Storyline Entertainment

Twenty young women from across India arrive for an intense, month-long beauty boot camp - they are the hand-picked contestants for the Miss India pageant. Winning the coveted title means instant stardom, a lucrative career path and freedom from the constraints of a patriarchal society.

In another corner of India we visit a camp for young girls run by the militant fundamentalist movement. Through lectures and physical combat training, the girls learn what it means to be good Hindu women.

Moving between the transformative action at both camps and the characters private lives, The World Before Her creates a lively, provocative portrait of the worlds largest democracy at a critical transitional moment.