It took Los Angeles-based filmmaker Tabrez Noorani 14 years to translate the idea of Love Sonia, from his head to paper and finally, on reel. After all, it's not easy to find funding for a Hindi film on sex trafficking that was going to be an unflinching narrative, with two leads, largely unknown.

In 2007, when Noorani along with writers Alkesh Vaja and Ted Caplan were done with the script, they did not dream of getting the cast and backing that the project eventually received. After years of getting shut down by producers across the globe, Noorani's debut film is now being produced by David Womark of Life of Pi fame, and will see stalwarts from both Hollywood and Bollywood. Besides the lead actors Mrunal Thakur and Riya Sisodiya, the film also stars Demi Moore, Freida Pinto, Mark Duplass, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao and Richa Chaddha. Come August 10, Love Sonia will open the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.