Toronto’s First Take Entertainment (FTE) and Mumbai-based Salman Khan Films (SKF) will produce Lions of the Sea, a film about the Komagata Maru incident of 1914 in which 376 citizens from Punjab, Indian attempted to emigrate to Canada.

Upon arriving in Canada, all but 24 of the ship’s passengers were denied entry and sent back to India, where many were either arrested or shot and killed by British forces.

The project is set to be the first feature film produced through the Canada/India treaty coproduction treaty, according to First Take producer Vinay Virmani, since the agreement came into effect in summer 2014, according to playbackonline.ca

The film marks the second time that First Take has worked with Bollywood star Salman Khan’s prodco, after SKF served as a minority producer on the Canadian romantic comedy Dr. Cabbie (2014).

Attached to star in the lead role is Irrfan Khan, who played the lead in Life of Pi and also stars in the recently released Dan Brown thriller Inferno. Vinay Virmani sold Khan on the project when he met him in Toronto last year for the premiere of Khan’s film Guilty.

Virmani is penning the script alongside writer Suzette Couture, with production scheduled to begin in Canada, India, Hong Kong and the U.K. next year. The script is based on a story that Vinay Virmani’s father Dr. Ajay Virmani has been developing for nearly two decades. Vinay Virmani told Playback Daily the producers are targeting a 90-day shoot. Pauline Dhillon will also serve as a producer on the project.

Financing for the project will come from Telefilm, The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) and private equity from various international investors.

Virmani said First Take wanted to make this project now because the timing is right to tell this story, with Canada celebrating its 150th anniversary next year and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this year apologizing in the House of Commons for the treatment of the migrants aboard the Komagata Maru.