George Lucas took out a full-page ad in "Variety" to support Deepa Mehta in her struggle to make this film when Indian authorities made clear their intentions to shut the production down.
Four years after production was shut down in India, filming resumed in Sri Lanka. The movie was shot under the fake title "Full Moon" to avoid attention.
The shoot in Varanasi was stopped due to threats and demonstrations orchestrated by Hindu fundamentalist groups supported by the leadership of the state government in Uttar Pradesh. The protests were based on a previous version of the script which had been leaked, and lines of dialogue taken out of context to make them appear anti-Hindi. Ms. Mehta was "burned in effigy" during these protests.
Sarala Kariyawasam was cast in Sri Lanka, and did not speak a word of either Hindi or English. She worked hard on the script to memorize the lines of a language very new to her.
Shooting was disrupted by extremist forces in 2000.