/> Ironically Shekhar Kapoor whose finest work Bandit Queen based upon the diaries of Mala Sen on Phoolan Devi, was in London—the city where Mala lived for many years—when Shekhar heard of her death.

On Sunday morning in London Shekhar half-awake sends up a prayer for Mala Sen. "I'm so relieved that she didn't die in London. Mumbai where she passed away, is a better place to die. London and the rest of the West can be awfully clinical and detached about death. India is far more community-driven and compassionate about death. "

Shekhar recalls his collaboration with Mala Sen. "Her attachment to researching on the life of Phoolan Devi was deep intense and absolute, so much so that I think in many she was profoundly influenced by Phoolan specially on the question of male domination. Because of what Phoolan had gone through Mala became passionate on the subject of male domination. "

Interestingly Shekhar's insight into Phoolan Devi was based completely on Mala Sen's Diaries Of Phoolan Devi. Explains the filmmaker, "You see I had no access to Phoolan.

I couldn't meet her even once because she was in jail and I was not able to disguise myself as someone else to visit her. Mala could do that. She repeatedly and regularly met Phoolan in jail posing as someone else. She spent years trying to understand Phoolan's heart soul and mind. "

Shekhar admits Bandit Queen couldn't have happened without Mala Sen. "My interpretation of Phoolan's character was entirely based on how she saw the character. I had to go entirely by Mala's vision. And there was so much to take from Mala's interpretation. It was almost like the two women had become bonded in pain and empathy. "

Shekhar considers Bandit Queen his best film to date. "It is the only film I made without any commercial pressures. I made Phoolan Devi's life on celluloid exactly how I wanted to. And it wouldn't have been possible without Mala. She knew Phoolan. I could only know the Phoolan that Mala knew. "

Shekhar drifted away from Mala once the screenplay of Bandit Queen was complete. "It happens. Once you start shooting a film your world-view is governed by the people who are an immediate part of the film. I was shooting the film in the wilderness and so cut off from everything that when the Mumbai blasts happened in 1993 I had no clue about it...Mala moved on.

We'd run into one another in London. We had many long conversations on possible subsequent collaborations. But they didn't materialize. I feel Mala's intense attachment to unraveling Phoolan's life was an amazing fulcrum in her life. "