After giving a remarkable performance in Kumkum Bhagya, Mrunal Thakur makes her film debut with Love Sonia which is based on true stories of human trafficking & prostitution. She talks to Sangeeta Yadav about how doing this film was emotionally & physically challenging

Tell us about Love Sonia.

It is the story of a village girl Sonia who, in order to find her lost sister Preeti, gets trapped in the prostitution world. She is trafficked from Mumbai,  Hong Kong to Los Angeles. But she never gives up and comes out a winner. Sonia is not just a fictitious character created by director Tabrez Noorani but the story of all the girls out there in the Red Light areas. It will give you goosebumps. My aim to do this film was that after watching this film, the victims should not give up and the audience should take back something after they leave the theatre.

How did you prepare for the role?

Riya Sisodiya, who plays my sister Preeti, and I went to Sonagachi in Kolkata and stayed for four-five days there to study the body language of prostitutes and know what they go through and how they live. We got in touch with not-for-profit organisation Apne Aap who is doing amazing work by keeping the prostitute’s children away from the redlight area and giving them the best education possible.

How was your experience interacting with these prostitutes?

I was shocked when they told me that a woman would be given to 30 to 40 clients in a day for just Rs 30 to Rs 40 per session. They go through so much emotionally and physically. We went to one of the prostitute’s house and the moment I entered the room, all I could see was a bed, bathroom and kitchen, all in one room. Their bed was placed above the red bricks and elevated. When I asked why they kept their beds like this, the woman said ‘didi, jab clients aate hai toh bachcha aur pati kahaan soyega’. The husband and child sleep under the bed while the woman is with the client on the bed. I was shocked and questioned why a husband would allow his wife to do that.

These women are addicted to sedatives and to get them, they have no other choice but to do this. It is heartbreaking to see an innocent child exposed to all this. The girls are trafficked in containers with diapers, oxygen cylinders, masks, food and water. They have to poop and pee in the same container for 10-12 days. Out of seven, only two survive at the end.

Your de-glam look has surprised everyone...

Make-up artist Virginia Holmes has done  fabulous work to make me look like a village girl. I didn’t groom myself for six months and had to wear three shade darker make-up. When I saw myself for the first time during the look test, I was in shock and couldn’t believe that it was me.

Was there a scene which was difficult to shoot?

It was a scene in Hong Kong with a 55-year-old man raping me and it was extremely difficult to perform. I literally lost it but people from the crew supported me and told me that we are doing this film for a cause and we want to save the girls out there in the real world. Without their support, I would not have been able to do it. Even today that scene haunts me. As soon as the director would say cut, the intense atmosphere would turn into a light moment with lots of laughter and talking. The team helped me come out of the situation. The crew  never allowed me to get into the skin of the character for that particular shot because they knew that if I did that, I would not be the same person in real life anymore.

Any other moment?

There was another scene shot, again in Hong Kong where it was shown that the girl’s hymen gets stitched so that she shows up as a virgin again. I heard the story from one of the girls at  Sonagachi that she was sold as a virgin and immediately after her first night, she was stitched again and the next day she was sold for the second time as a virgin. All this so that the dealer could make double the amount. That talk came back to me while I was doing a similar scene.

Is there a way out for these girls?

There are so many girls who get trafficked at  age 12-13. But when they manage to get rescued or escape the brothel and go to her family, the family disowns and abandons them because of shame. Who is going to shelter them or give them a job due to the stigma attached to them? A few don’t even know how to speak Hindi as they are trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal or to foreign countries where prostitution is legal. They are drugged for days and become addicted to it. They are willing to do anything for drugs. Some of them commit suicide because of the shame and some die because they are overdosed. These girls have no choice. They are like puppets in the hands of cruel handlers.

Do you think prostitution should get legalised?

I hope it gets legalised so that those women who do this do it out of choice, have their rights and are not exploited. No person should be forced into it even if it gets legalised. Around 270 girls go missing every day in India and who knows what happens to them in the end.