Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta has begun pre-production work on her next film, The Exclusion, which focuses on a 1914 incident involving Indian men who were denied entry to Canada.

John Abraham and Seema Biswas, who were acclaimed for their roles in Mehta's last film, Water, are to star in the movie.

It is the story of an enterprising businessman who hires a ship, the Kamagata Maru, to transport 375 Indian men, most of them political dissidents, to Canada.

They are eventually sent home without setting foot on Canadian soil after the port of Vancouver denies them entry. In India, many are killed by British soldiers.

Chapter of history Canadians unaware of: Mehta

Biswas plays a woman who galvanizes the tiny Indian community in Vancouver and raises money to help fight the cause of the would-be immigrants.

In an interview at a Chicago film festival, Mehta said she was drawn by the story.

"Canada would not let them in, apparently scared of a brown invasion. This is one chapter of Canadian history that people do not know much about," she said.

"Exclusion explores racism and the basis of all racism — which is economics," she said.

Mehta has written the script in Hindi and English and is directing.

Mehta's next work after that will be a Hollywood film, The Julia Project, about an American woman who marries into the Korean royal family.

Meanwhile, her controversial film, Water, finally is scheduled for commercial release in India.

Extremists had objected to the film as being anti-Hindu, because it is critical of India's traditional treatment of widows.

Mehta had to shut down her Indian film shoot after it was disrupted by death threats and vandalism.

Distributor B.R. Films has said it will release Water across India in January. The film has been shown in India at film festivals, but has yet to see widespread release.