NEW YORK CITY, NY (TIP): Directed by the Oscar-winning Director Jeffrey Brown and Produced by Emma Thompson, “Sold” is a compelling story that spotlights the horrific business of sex trafficking. An adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same title by Patricia McCormick, it focusses on the life of a 13-year-old girl in Nepal, Lakshmi, who hopes for a better life by moving to India for a new job.

“Sold” tells the story of this Nepali child named Lakshmi, portrayed by Niyar Saikia and how her dreams turn to nightmares as she finds herself trapped in a brothel where she’s repeatedly drugged, beaten, and forced into the flesh trade.

Lakshmi’s ordeal comes to an end after a U.S. photographer, played by Gillian Anderson (best known as the FBI special agent Dana Scully from “The X-Files”), who works with a local organization, learns about Lakshmi and leads efforts to rescue her.

“Sold” opens theatrically in the U.S. starting on April 1 in New York, and rolls out to other cities through May.

The Indian Panorama met the “Sold” team to know more about the film and here is what they had to say:

The film focuses on the sex trade between Nepal and India, but the issue is global and governments along with the society need to change their invisible attitude towards sex slavery and Human trafficking –  Sold director Jeffrey D. Brown.

While talking to us about the movie, director Brown spoke about his experience meeting with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who saw the movie at a private screening with the cast of the film, and how it led to the partnership between Art of Living and ‘Sold’ to increase awareness and fund raising programs to help the children trapped in the horrific business of sex trafficking.

While emphasizing on the importance of education in reducing human trafficking among children, Brown called upon governments around the world to notice this growing pandemic and asked for governments to set up special units to counter this “fresh meat trade”.

Gillian Anderson highlighted the importance of the communities to get involved and appealed to the Indian-Americans to join the cause.

Emma Thompson, the producer of the film, called for the society, the celebrities –  cricketing world &Bollywood, to support the fight against human trafficking.

“Sold” has partnered with a number of nonprofits, including the Art of Living, Build a Nest, Hope House, Save the Children, PTSD Tackled and many more, in raising funds for children of sex workers and sex trafficking survivors.

Taxis, Cabs, police everyone seemed to be in the trade and it moves in circles, said actress Seirah Royin who stars as Mrs. Tripathi, the Hope House director in the movie.

She also spoke about her experience as the team recced the Kolkata red district and how visible these family home styled brothels were to the society, yet invisible to all around.

The International Labor Organization estimates that, worldwide, of the approximately 21 million people trafficked into forced labor—including sexual labor, which accounts for more than 20 percent of cases—more than a quarter of the victims are children.

Sold will also be cut down into a 50-minute educational version that can be shown in schools to help raise awareness.

Cast

	Gillian Anderson	…	Sophia
	David Arquette	…	Sam
	Seema Biswas	…	Amma
	Tillotama Shome	…	Bimla
	Sushmita Mukherjee	…	Mumtaz
	Ankur Vikal	…	Varun
	Priyanka Bose	…	Monica
	Neerja Naik	…	Anita
	Parambrata Chatterjee	…	Vikram
	Ratnabali Bhattacharjee	…	Pushpa
	Seirah Royin	…	Mrs. Tripathi
	Gopi Desai	…	Diya
	Niyar Saikia	…	Lakshmi
	Jessica Dhillon	…	Jessica
	Tanaji Dasgupta	…	Jai
	Himanshu Tyagi	…	Suren
	Saksham Dayma	…	Tanak
	Jasper Neupane	…	Krishna