Award-winning director Deepa Mehta after the success of ‘Water’ is now planning to make a film on the lives of Indians who were refused entry into Canada nearly a century ago.

Mehta and producer David Hamilton are working on the project about the voyage of the Japanese liner ‘the Komagata Maru’. The film is expected to start shooting next year in Canada, India and possibly Japan.

The film tentatively titled ‘Exclusion’ is based on real events when more than 300 were Indians barred from Vancouver harbour, Canada in 1914. On their return to India, passengers were arrested and British colonial officials planned to send them back home to the northern state of Punjab. Some refused to go and 20 were killed when police opened fire on a demonstration.

Major Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan and John Abraham have expressed interest in the project but casting has not been finalised for the big budget movie.