Sneha Kumari walked into Toronto's Princess of Wales Theatre on Wednesday as an unfamiliar name to most of the 2,000-odd people in the hall. By the time the credits rolled on Phoolan, they were on their feet.

The film, written and directed by Richie Mehta, had its world premiere in the Special Presentation section of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival on September 17. It's an Amazon MGM Studios production, and it marks Mehta's second big swing at an Indian true-crime story for the platform after Poacher.

What makes Phoolan different from the standard cradle-to-grave biopic is where it chooses to stop looking. Rather than tracking Phoolan Devi's entire life, the film narrows in on one chapter: a 48-hour siege involving an armed group of 2,000 men, set in the years before she became the figure the world would come to know as the Bandit Queen. The source material is her own autobiography, I, Phoolan Devi: The Autobiography of India's Bandit Queen, published by Editions Robert Laffont.

Mehta framed the choice as a deliberate act of stripping away legend. "I was drawn to a very specific chapter of Phoolan's life, the formative years before the world knew her name, contrasted with the period where she was a misunderstood legend," he said after the screening. "It felt essential to me to strip away the mythology and reveal the human underneath." He called the response at TIFF proof that the film had "connected in exactly the way we hoped it would."

Shilangi Mukherji, who heads SVOD business for Prime Video India, pointed back to the Poacher partnership in explaining why Amazon backed this one without hesitation. "He doesn't sensationalize," she said of Mehta. "He tells stories with a quiet, unflinching honesty that stays with you long after the credits roll."

Producer Shareen Mantri of Namah Pictures, who has carried the project alongside Kishor Arora, Kanwal Kohli and Mehta himself, called the Toronto reception "emotional" and "a moment of immense pride," adding that Sneha Kumari's performance in the title role is one she expects will "resonate deeply with audiences."

The cast rounding out the film includes Anurag Thakur, Vikram Pratap Singh, Aakash Dahiya, Prateek Pachouri and Dev Dutt Budholiya, all of whom were present for the premiere alongside Mehta, Mukherji and the Namah Pictures producers.

What nobody's confirmed yet is when Indian audiences actually get to watch it. Amazon MGM Studios says Phoolan will stream on Prime Video in India and across more than 240 countries and territories, but no date has been attached to that rollout. For now, Toronto has had its look. The rest of the world is still waiting on a release calendar.