''Love Sonia'' is a 2018 Indian

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language drama film directed by Tabrez Noorani and produced by David Womark. The film features newcomer

Mrunal Thakur Mrunal Thakur (born 1 August 1992), is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Hindi, Marathi, and Telugu cinema. She began her acting career with the television soaps '' Mujhse Kuchh Kehti...Yeh Khamoshiyaan'' (2012) and '' Kumkum Bhagya'' ...

as the title character along with Riya Sisodiya,

Freida Pinto Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she resolved at a young age to become an actress. As a student at St. Xavier's Coll ...

Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After making her film debut in 1981, Moore appeared on the soap opera '' General Hospital'' (1982–1984) and subsequently gained recognition as a member of the Br ...

Manoj Bajpayee Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also transliterated as Manoj Bajpai, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. Regarded as one of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, he i ...

Richa Chadda Richa Chadda (born 18 December 1986) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films. After debuting in a small role in the comedy film '' Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!'' (2008), Chadda's breakthrough came in 2012 with a supporting role in the noir gang ...

, Anupam Kher,

Adil Hussain Adil Hussain () is an Indian actor who has worked in Indian cinema, including art house cinema and mainstream Bollywood, as well as international cinema, in films such as '' The Reluctant Fundamentalist'' and '' Life of Pi'' (both 2012). He re ...

Rajkummar Rao Rajkummar Rao (born Raj Kumar Yadav; 31 August 1984) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi films. He has appeared in more than 30 films since 2010, and is the recipient of several accolades including a National Film Award, three ...

, and

Sai Tamhankar Sai Tamhankar (Pronunciation: əiː t̪aːmɦəɳkəɾ born 25 June 1986) is an Indian actress known for her work in Marathi, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam language films and television. She is the recipient of two Filmfare Marathi Awards and one ...

. ''Love Sonia'' had its world premiere at the

London Indian Film Festival London Indian Film Festival is a film festival established in 2010 to showcase Indian independent film.

Synopsis

The film is about two sisters robbed of their innocence when one is sold by her debt-ridden father, and the other follows after her in the hope of rescuing her but becomes trapped in the sex trade herself. While on a troublesome and challenging journey that takes us through the red-light districts of Mumbai, the latent innocence in the younger sister and the grit to rescue her sister and eventually herself stays intact.

Plot

Preeti and Sonia are two daughters of a debt-ridden poor farmer, Shiva, who lives approximately 1400 kms away from Mumbai. The sisters love each other deeply and are willing to go to any length to protect each other. A village boy named Amar is deeply in love with Sonia. Amar helps the sisters create their individual email IDs to stay in touch with each other. Shiva, who is indebted to a local landlord Dada Thakur, agrees to sell Preeti to a prostitute Anjali, to pay off his debt. Sonia desperately attempts to save Preeti from being sold but fails. That night, she mercifully requests Dada Thakur to send her to Mumbai, to meet Preeti. Subsequently, Anjali whisks away Sonia to Mumbai under the pretext of reuniting her with Preeti. Anjali sells her in a brothel owned by Faizal a.k.a. Babu and controlled by the brothel madame Madhuri. Sonia is terribly scared and traumatized by the atmosphere of the brothel. Another prostitute Rashmi befriends her. Sonia while trying to escape from the brothel is caught by Faizal who threatens to kill her if she tries to run away again. After multiple pleas, Faizal agrees to let Sonia meet Preeti, who has become a drug-addict, high profile prostitute. Preeti angrily reprimands Sonia for letting their dad sell her and throws her away. Meanwhile, Shiva begs Dada Thakur to return Sonia to him. Anjali provides Shiva the address to Kamathipura and directs him to Mumbai. Shiva frantically searches for Sonia in all the red-light areas of Mumbai. Meanwhile, a social worker named Manish approaches Sonia and extracts details about Preeti from her. He raids Faizal's brothel to rescue Sonia and another pre-teen named Asha. However, Sonia refuses to leave. Rashmi severs ties with Sonia when she accuses her of stealing Preeti's anklet, the only souvenir of Preeti left with Sonia. Faizal ships off Madhuri, Sonia and several other girls to Hong Kong in a cargo container. Madhuri, who till that time was hostile towards Sonia, starts looking after her affectionately. Sonia ends up getting raped by a Chinese customer. She forcefully undergoes a hymen reconstruction procedure to prove her a virgin. The girls are again shipped to Los Angeles, where a relatively friendly client allows Sonia to get in touch with Amar via email. He also gifts her a mobile phone. At a party, Madhuri commits suicide by slitting her wrist. Sonia runs away from her handlers, deep into the forests. A destitute Sonia, while trying to eat from a dustbin, is rescued by a social worker Salma who runs a NGO named C.A.S.T. Sonia finally finds peace of mind in the shelter home along with several other rescued girls and women. One day, Salma and Manish surprise her by reconnecting her with Preeti over a video call. Preeti tearfully asks for forgiveness and requests her to return. Six months later, Sonia returns to Manish's shelter home where she shockingly finds out that Preeti goes back to prostitution due to her drug addiction. Sonia begins her life all over again with a renewed hope in the shelter home. Her parents come to meet her but refuse to accept her back. She also patches up with Amar. Finally, she sends an email to Preeti stating that no matter what happens, she will surely find her someday.

Cast

as Sonia *

as Rashmi *

as Anjali *

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, ...

as an American expatriate *

as Faizal *

as Manish *

as Madhuri * Riya Sisodiya as Preeti Singhania * Anupam Kher as Dada Thakur *

as Shiva Singhania *

as Selma * Sunny Pawar as Bang Bang

Production

Development

Tabrez Noorani was inspired to make ''Love Sonia'' after he was introduced to the severity of human trafficking in Los Angeles in 2003, when some girls were found in a shipping container from China. One of them was a young Indian girl. The incident inspired Noorani to work with non-governmental organizations focused on trafficking in Los Angeles. He has also participated in several brothel raids. Noorani and Womark met on

Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...

's ''

Life of Pi ''Life of Pi'' is a Canadian philosophical novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist is Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, India who explores issues of spirituality and metaphysics from an early age. He ...

'' and have been working on the project for three years. This film basically revolves around a scenario that depicts the human trafficking of girls for heinous practices that are portrayed in the red-light areas of Mumbai depicting the sorrow of prostitutes on a large scale.

Casting

was cast in the title role after a year long search of over 2,500 girls.

Filming

The

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

begins late April 2016 in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and will also film in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{Official website, http://www.lovesonia.com/LSmain.html Indian drama films Hindi-language drama films 2010s Hindi-language films Films set in Los Angeles 2018 films 2018 drama films