From the tale of a persecuted rights activist hounded from her home to Shabnam Sukhdev’s moving study of her father, this year’s programme foregrounds work by and about women – a far cry from the demure Bollywood heroines of the past India’s cinema and society is changing, and women are at its forefront. And so a striking aspect of this year’s London Indian film festival is the strength of its female contribution, with women producers, directors and lead characters dominating the schedule. The most explicit example of this is Nirbashito (Banished), a Bengali film clearly inspired by the life of Taslima Nasrin, the writer who was hounded from her native Bangladesh for her outspoken views on women’s rights, secularism and religious freedom. After living in exile in the US and Europe, she found temporary refuge in Kolkata, but was then driven from that city and forced to live in Delhi. Islamic extremists subsequently drove her from India entirely, and she now lives back in the States. Nirbashito’s central character remains unnamed, but bears a close physical and political resemblance to Nasrin, and explores the isolation and dislocation of a woman writer in exile. Churni Ganguly, the film’s writer and director, regards the movie as a labour of love about one of the subcontinent’s most important authors. “It is a voice that needs to be heard,” she says. “Women are not really emancipated or allowed to grow beyond expected limits. Not many people thought I would get it made. But I stuck to my script and my story. If you believe in what you’re doing, it’s possible.”

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