When 'Love Sonia' actor Mrunal Thakur met sex trafficking survivors

Tabrez Noorani has strived for perfection in his directorial debut, Love Sonia, which deals with sex trafficking. To ensure that his cast portrayed their characters authentically, he conducted workshops. He also ensured that Mrunal Thakur and Riya Sisodiya, who play the lead characters, met a few victims of sex trafficking. Mrunal, who essays the protagonist Sonia says, “It was extremely sad to hear stories about how these girls ended up in the flesh trade. They were initially shy but eventually opened up and shared incidents that shook me and were difficult to get out of my head.”

Mrunal and Riya shot most of their parts in the presence of these girls. The director gave them the situations but not the dialogues so they could improvise with the help of the victims. About keeping the portrayal real, Tabrez says, “From day one, I wanted this film to be authentic. Therefore, it was important to me to give the actors as much information as possible. Whenever I could have them meet people we were portraying in the film, I did that. I wanted them to absorb the surroundings where the story takes place. The more research the better, and the actors all embraced this process.”

The film also features Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadha, Rajkummar Rao, Sai Tamhankar, Adil Hussain, Anupam Kher, Demi Moore and Freida Pinto. Love Sonia releases on September 14.