Director James Ivory, one-half of the Merchant-Ivory legendary filmmaking duo - the other half being producer and director Ismail Merchant, told Torrance that a producer whom he and his editor knew showed him a cut of the film.

"I was impressed by the sweep of it and the authenticity of it," he says, and so he lent his production company's name to the release.

Ivory was born in California and grew up in Oregon, but his first films were documentaries about India.

"One of them I made without even going to India," he told the Washington Times. "It was an interest of mine that developed, in Indian art and music and life."

Ivory's films explore the world of the outsider, and he notes: "That theme wouldn't have been so important to me if I hadn't starting working in India. There you feel you do stand apart."

That interest in India led to a meeting with the Indian-born Merchant and a lifelong collaboration.

"We always wanted to do the same thing. Not always the same thing, but we had a common goal," Ivory says of the partnership. "It's certainly not easy now. He was my absolutely closest artistic collaborator."