The Norfolk hometown of the Indian princess who served as the inspiration for their ground-breaking film was visited by a film crew and their lead actor.
The life of suffragette Princess Sophia Duleep Singh is being chronicled in the movie Lioness, which is being produced jointly by the UK and India.
Thetford welcomed the crew and Paige Sandhu, a former Emmerdale actress who will play Sophia, on Wednesday.
Director Kajri Babbar remarked, "It was very overwhelming.".
It was emotional, but we are carrying on a significant legacy that we are discussing. ".
Sophia, who was born in 1876, was the goddaughter of Queen Victoria and the exiled Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh, the final Sikh Maharaja of the Punjab before direct British rule over India.
Before relocating to Faraday House at Hampton Court in 1896—a grace-and-favor apartment owned by the Queen—she was raised at Elveden Hall, just across the border in Suffolk.
She joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded by Emmeline Pankhurst, and threw a sign that read "Give women the vote!" at Prime Minister Herbert Asquith's car in 1911.
Sophia was present at "Black Friday," which resulted in 115 women being detained and 200 allegations of sexual assault, mostly against police officers.
The Ancient House Museum in Thetford has a special exhibit honoring Sophia's legacy.
The team was hosted by the town's mayor Stuart Wright, Melissa Hawker, an Ancient House learning officer, and Peter Bance, a family biographer of the Duleep Singhs.
In addition to the 16th-century Blo Norton Hall in Diss, Norfolk, where one of Sophia's brothers lived, Ms. Sandhu and the crew also paid a visit to the graves of Sophia's parents, Sir Duleep Singh and Maharani Bamba Duleep Singh, at St. Andrew and St. Patrick's church in Elveden.
For her to see those things with her own eyes—and for me, too—to know that this woman was there, in Blo Norton, which still has those Tudor beams, touching those things—was very emotional, Ms. Babbar told the BBC. ".
In addition to focusing on Sophia's life, the movie will also follow the fictional Mehak Kaur, a character who lives in Southall, west London, in the 1990s and is portrayed by Indian movie star Aditi Rao Hydari.
It is the first UK-India co-production since the two nations' bilateral agreement was signed in 2008. The British Film Institute and India's National Film Development Corporation are supporting it.
They aim to begin shooting in December and have it finished in time for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
According to Ms. Sandhu, "I am extremely humbled to be portraying someone with a legacy like hers, the work she did, the lives she helped, and the family she came from.
"I sincerely hope to do her amazing story justice. ".
Last month, a blue plaque honoring Princess Sophia was unveiled at London's Faraday House.
