Deepa Mehta will tackle the sensitive issue of racism in new film Exclusion, which is actually inspired by a real life incident in which a shipload of Indians was turned back from Canada in 1914.
"The script is ready and we should begin filming by the end of the year," Mehta,
57, told Reuters in a weekend interview.
Amitabh Bachchan will play a Sikh nationalist who hires a ship and sails to Canada with hundreds of Indians in search of a new life.
But the passengers of the Japanese "Komagata Maru" are turned back from Vancouver by Canadian authorities using new exclusion laws aimed at keeping Asian immigrants away.
Mehta says what appealed to her in the "Komagata Maru" incident was the passengers' fight for dignity.
"Most of my films are about human dignity, be it "Fire" or "Water." "Exclusion" also tells about a 58-year-old Sikh revolutionary with a very strong sense of dignity," said Mehta, who has lived in Toronto since the age of 23.
Mehta says she picked Bachchan to play the Sikh revolutionary and businessman, Gurdit Singh, because he "can show power without screaming."
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