A courtesan's life has been a bone of contention between historians and movie-makers. The Indian Cinema has primarily portrayed them as a wealthy, privileged lot, with historians often rejecting their glorified demeanour and emphasising the need to show a more realistic narrative. To an extent, the 1972 movie Pakeezah, starring Meena Kumari or Rekha's Umrao Jaon, set the benchmark for inching closest to the life of a tawaif.

But the debate over the glitz of a courtesan's on-screen life and her reality has been simmering for a while now. A recently released book titled "Ganika," attempts to break away from this notion and take us through the lesser-known lives of tawaifs through a visual treat.