Kamli was actually inspired by a K.N.T. Sastry's award winning documentary harvesting babies. K.N.T. Sastry wanted to make a feature film based on the documentary about the plight of tribal women selling their babies for a pittance. He actually contacted and wanted to make film with Soundarya as the main female lead of Kamli, but she died in a helicopter crash, and finally made the film with Nandita Das.