The horror of the Malta Boat Tragedy in which more than 400 (to be verified) South Asian illegal immigrants drowned on Christmas Day 1996 was filmed in Bombay for the film KAAFILA.

A ship off Wadala coast was used for this film by Ammtoje Mann. A song was filmed on Sambhavana Seth under the supervision of choreographer Raju Khan on the ship, which precedes the tragedy.

Mannerism Films' Kaafila features Sunny Deol and a team of talented theatre and TV artistes and is based on the global issue of illegal immigration and features the real incident of the Malta Boat tragedy in 1996 that cost the lives of 407 people. The causalities were 170 from India, 88 from Pakistan and 149 from Sri Lanka.

This incident brought the plight of illegal immigrants into international limelight and exposed the horrors faced by these immigrants who travel illegally to western countries in search of an imaginary utopia.

All these people were illegal immigrants who drowned in the Malta-Sicily channel when their boat collided with a ship. Deol plays the main protagonist in the film who becomes the savior and takes many of these immigrants to their destination.

This kind of sequence will be a first time in Hindi cinema. The special effects are being done by RAJTARU Videosonic, a leading company for VFX in India. They are the only team from India which has been asked to join the prestigious Hollywood VFX society in Los Angeles. This is an internationally renowned organization for special effects which attended the international seminar on VFX there last July.

Kaafila tackles the issue of illegal immigration, which has affected the lives of millions of Indians and Asians and depicts the pitfalls and suffering encountered by these people who travel in this way rejecting their motherland for their utopian dreams, in an authentic and realistic manner.

Pakistani actress Sana Nawaz is playing the female lead. She plays an Afghani character. Another Pakistani actress Mona Lisa is playing the role of an Indian. She is one of the most popular television actress in Pakistan. Bulgarian super model Polina also plays the lead opposite Sunny Deol in the film.

The film attempts at showing the pains and trials those immigrants go through in their lives.

When I read about the tragedy, I decided to make a film about illegal human trafficking, says producer-director Ammtoje Mann, whose earlier film Hawayein brought him world recognition. He added that he had met many illegal immigrants who told him their horror stories. He said the film would highlight how many people fleeing poverty die in a quest to make better lives for themselves elsewhere.