She was built in 1981 as a Dmitriy Shostakovich-class ferry by Stocnia Szczecinska im A Warskiego, Szczecin, Poland as Lev Tolstoy for the Black Sea Shipping Company.

She was third in a series of seven near-identical ferries built for various shipping companies of the Soviet Union.

She sailed under the names Natasha, Palmira, The Jasmine, Farah, EasyCruise Life and finally Ocean Life with Blue Open Cruise Lines, who operated her on a series of Indian coastal voyages.

On her maiden voyage with Blue Open Cruise Lines on 18 November 2010, with over 400 passengers and 134 crew on board the Ocean Life developed a crack on her port side 17 nmi (31 km) off of Goa, in the Arabian Sea.

The ship started taking on water and began to list five degrees.