This was the first Indian film to be shot abroad. Filmmaker Hirendra Kumar Basu took up the challenge of shooting this film entirely in Africa based on the request of the nationalist leader Seth Govind Das. Das wanted to challenge the narrative set by American films like "Trader Horn" (1931) that the West discovered Africa. He contended that Indians, specifically the Kathiawadis, had trade relations with African tribes before the people of the West set foot on the continent.[1]
