©Courtesy of Kiran Bedi, Britannica
Dream Slate Pictures in India is planning to make a biopic about Kiran Bedi, a prominent woman police officer and politician. Titled Bedi: The Name You Know. The Story You Don’t. the film will take a comprehensive look at the life of its 73-year-old subject, “revealing the untold incidents, personal and professional challenges and unwavering determination that shaped her extraordinary career in policing,” say the producers.
The upcoming film, with a planned debut in 2025, will be written and directed by Kushaal Chawla, whose credits include One Way and Another Time.
In 1972, after winning India’s national junior tennis championship, Bedi joined the Indian Police Service as its first woman officer. She rose through the ranks and established a reputation as a reformer who fought corruption and campaigned against drug abuse. After retiring from the police service, she entered the political arena and served as the Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry from 2016-2021.
In talking about the biopic, Bedi emphasized her Indian roots and her commitment to the contributions of women in her native country. She was quoted as saying: “This story is not just my story. It’s an Indian woman’s story – an Indian woman who grew up in India, studied in India, raised by Indian parents, and worked for the people of India throughout her career. My story began at the age of nine when my father told me, ‘Life is on an incline, you either go up or you come down,’ and my mother said, ‘You shall be a giver and not a receiver.’ These statements remained my guiding principles. As we aim to release this film in the 50th International Year of the Woman, this will be an Indian woman’s story representing our great nation internationally.”
To this, director Chawla declared that “It is an honor and privilege to write and direct a film about unique life of Kiran Bedi. She has been a tremendous inspiration to me, and having her trust to direct this film is truly a blessing. In this feature film, I explore heart-warming transformations, unseen triumphs, and the extraordinary personal and professional journey of Kiran Bedi as she navigated her path as the first woman in the male-dominated world of policing.”
This is not the first time that Kiran Bedi was the subject of a film. In 1990, the Telugu-language film Karthavyam became a hit, and in 2008 Megan Doneman made the documentary Kiran Bedi: Yes Madam, Sir. In 2009, a fictionalized version of her life was portrayed in Kannada Kiran Bedi, a film in the Kannada language.
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