Festival Season:
February 2026
LOST QUEEN
Directors:
Writers:
Saumya Sengupta
Producers:
Indranil Biswas
Run Time:
1:08:42
Awarded for the following Category(s):
Awarded Category(s)
Lost Queen is a poignant feature documentary that follows Sultana Begum, the great-granddaughter-in-law of India’s last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar. Living in poverty in a Howrah slum, far removed from the grandeur of her royal ancestry, Sultana survives on a small pension and occasional help from strangers.
Despite her dire circumstances, she wages a decade-long legal battle with the Indian government, seeking recognition of her family's historical link to the Red Fort—once the heart of Mughal power. Her struggle is not for wealth or power, but for dignity, justice, and remembrance.
Through intimate vérité-style filmmaking, the documentary captures Sultana’s daily life, court visits, and quiet reflections, revealing a forgotten royal legacy that continues to breathe beneath the surface of modern India.
Lost Queen is more than one woman’s fight; it’s a meditation on memory, identity, and the silent erasure of history. As Sultana holds onto her fading lineage, the film poses vital questions: What does it mean to inherit a legacy the world wants to forget? And how do you carry history when history refuses to carry you?
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