Bombay's red light district is notorious for being the endpoint of a flesh trade that has taken thousands of young Nepali girls from the poverty of hill villages to the raw decadence of a cosmopolitan city. The diversion, enticement and/or kidnapping of Nepali girls to Bombay has found expression in Mira Nair's internationally acclaimed film on street children, Salaam Bombay!
In the film, a Nepali virgin-prostitute known as "Solasaal" becomes the object of love Krishna, a street child and the hero of the film. Solasaal tries rebelliously to flee her kothi with Krishna, but is tamed into submission by a false promise of love from Baba, a pimp and drug dealer. Eventually, she and her purity are sold for 10,000 rupees.
"We chose to make the character a Nepali because that is what is very common in the red light district," says writer-director Mira Nair. "It's classical. And, actually, Solasaal's character is inspired by a real story."
The last we see of Solasaal in the film is her being driven away in an Ambassador car by her purchaser (picture). Her real life counterpart, however, had a different "script". Her rebellion caused a great stir, and she was sent back to the hills of Nepal, according to Nair.