It was the power of the internet that worked for filmmaker Tanuja Chandra during the making of "Hope And A Little Sugar", as it was the only way to communicate with her US-based producers for its pre- and post-production.

"I was in Mumbai and my producers in the US. The only way we could communicate was over the internet. The entire pre- production of the film, including the US casting, locations and every other detail was done over the net.

"We would e-mail each other constantly. They would put up pictures of locations and I would select them according to what I liked," she told after the film was screened at the IFFI here.

According to Glenn Rusow, the film's producer, everything turned out well despite the initial difficulties.

"It was a huge leap of faith for us, because we had never met Tanuja before. We had only read the script and loved it," Rusow said.

The film, which deals with the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy from a South Asian perspective, stars Mahima Chaudhary Anupam Kher and Vikram Chatwal and won the best film award at the recently held South Asian Film Festival in New York.

About the unusual film making process, Chandra said "I was left with no choice and we managed as best as we could over the internet. There were a lot of things left to chance, but I was confident that the film would do well and it has".

"The entire post-production of the movie has also been done on a protected website including the editing and the background score. It just goes to show what a powerful tool the Internet has become," she said.