An Evening with Mira Nair
iView Author:
Bharat Vineeth
(Boston, USA)
EMAIL:
plan32 [AT] gmail [DOT] com
An Evening with Mira Nair
Mira Nair is one of the top Indian directors in Hollywood at present. I was lucky enough to be present at Distinguished Artist Series at northeastern university, Boston on march, 20th.
Nair, who was born and raised in India, moved to the United States when she was 19 to attend Harvard University, where she graduated with a degree in sociology. While she was initially drawn to acting, she soon found something else that drew her in – film making. Beginning as a documentary filmmaker, Nair was recognized for some of her first films, including India Cabaret, which won for Best Documentary at the American Film Festival.
In addition to being nominated for an Oscar, Salaam Bombay!, Nair’s first feature film, won the Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988, as well as other international awards. One of Nair’s most popular movies, Monsoon Wedding, illustrates the cultural and generational differences that exist in India today through the plot of an arranged marriage. The film also won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
These were some of the questions asked by the audiences during that session:
Q1) Can you tell us something about your back ground and how has your childhood affected your film making process?
I was born in Bhuvaneswar, Orissa. Everybody used to call me Pagli which means mad girl. And actually madness is pretty vital in what I do. My father wanted me to join civil services as it was the era of Nehru’s secularism and socialism. But I used to play cricket with my two older brothers and watch Dr. Zhivago which was played all the time. I did dream of a wider world right from my childhood days through books. Watching movies at Delhi plaza theater, protesting Vietnam war,etc. So, my childhood has doses of lot independent acts. My experiences in my life are inspiration for many scenes in my films, like Tabu trying to wear a sock when she initially comes to USA.
Q2) Is it true that your son actually has a say in the casting decisions?
I had a thought that an young Indian actor from Bollywood should be cast as Gogol in namesake. But my son actually proposed Kal penn name after seeing Harold and Kumar go to white castle. And he actually made me see that movie. After seeing that movie I thought how can I cast a goofy guy like him as gogol. But kal penn flew from LA ( actually wrote a letter about his googol .i.e his childhood experiences ) I was blown away by that letter and cursed myself that how can I think of an Indian actor to play a role of a foreign born indian. Kal penn acted very well in the movie and I think I made a wise decision by listening to my son. Now, kal penn and my son zoran are good friends. Zoran has now has virtual play station presented by kal.
Q3) There are always opposite or contrast characters in your films like vanity fair and in monsoon wedding( relationships in a rich family and sweet little love story between a maid servant and a marriage planner) ?
I am always inspired by people who have resilience. The people who are marginalized by others and thought to be weak, when they come up trumps , that whats inspires me more than anything. You know life is much more colorful than just eating sushi in a restaurant.
Q4) Tell us more about salaam Bombay?
I was doing lot of documentaries that time before salaam happened. Lot were political documentaries and based on political subjects. I use to watch lot of street plays and also enjoyed working in workshops. I lived with strippers for 2 months to understand their lifestyle for one documentary, lived with rag pickers for my preparation for salaam. We had a workshop with 100 kids out of which we selected 24 finally. Again, we had 4 weeks of workshop with them, rehearsed with them. Salaam is a fiction film. It also launched characters of Nana Patekar and also Irfan khan was there in the film. He was 18 years old then. He was at National School of Drama ( NSD ). He has traveled a long way since then. He is my favorite , I almost cast him in all my movies now.
Q5) How difficult was it getting funding for this movie?
It was very tough to get the initial investment for this movie. Channel 4 supported me through this project. They said they will give 50% raise grant I.e the money they will fund me will be equal to the amount I raise. NFDC gave $1,50,000, I put it in $1,50,000 , so channel 4 gave me $1,50,000. so total was 4,50,000. this movie got me fame and recognition. From them onwards it is smooth sailing with no major hurdles. Now I can say that my movies now make more money than karan Johar movies.
Q6) what was the inspiration in making documentaries like children of desires sex and laughing club of India?
I had this thought that: can art change the world?. Well I don’t know about changing the world but it can influence few people for sure. Life is stranger than fiction, I knew a couple who had 3 children who were all girls but the lady wanted a son. The dad was happy with the girls but difference in the opinion of both of them made me think. In India having a son is more valued than a daughter even now also. This was the genesis for children of desires sex.
One day I was stuck in a traffic in Mumbai and I noticed around 2000 women dressed in white marching as it was worlds laughter day . When I found out more about that I came to know that there is actually a laughing club in mumbai. They take laughing seriously and have these meetings group who laugh for 40 minutes everyday. So I thought why not a documentary on this.
She also spoke about the AIDS jaago series of movies directed by her, vishal, farhan and santosh sivan and her upcoming movies —
–Shantaram ( the shooting was delayed due to writers strike ) *ing depp, Big B, Irfan khan, Konkana sen
–New york I love you– *ing irfan khan again and natalie portman. It’s a love story between Irfan (who plays a diamond merchant) and natalie portman( a orthodox jew). Its like loosing orthodoxy for one second. She said it was inspired from a David lean movie where two people are in love with no physical contact. Written by suketu mehta.
–8 – *ing ranvir shorey and Konkana sen
–Amelia — *ing hillary swank
And also in talks are to adapt “the reluctant fundamentalist” to screen written by Mohsin Hamid.
Am not a big fan of her movies but she is really a big shot in Hollywood now.
Just see the list of the movies in her kitty.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
If one thing I took away from meeting her at the opeing of Namesake in Stamford was that she could talk captivatingly in her own swaying way.
Looking foward to Namesake. I just want to see how she can pull of the casting of Ab Sr and Aishwarya. For god’s sake, no amount of talent can justify that choice.
I can so much see Pawan Malhotra in the central role along with Johnny Depp… plz!
@Bharat,
Thanks for sharing with us (readers), your conversation with Mira Nair. Is it possible for you to write full conversation?
You mentioned in the end “She also spoke——”.
May be part 2 of your post may cover the rest of the conversation with her.
Thanks again
“They take laughing seriously” lol
Thanks for sharing this.
@ravptor
casting of AB Sr and Aishwarya? Which movie are you talking about?
Neeraja ..its the movie based on the book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts …here’s an imdb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0429087/….
aishwarya in Shantaram?! what? where?
Aishwarya is not in Shantaram …..she is casted in Mira Nair’s next …
did someone missed asking her about Mississippi masala. I loved that film. The way she showed that we Indians are quite racist ourselves was beautiful.
Oh BTW Missisippi Masala had Denzel Washington!!!
@Anand
Thanks. I thought ravptor meant AB and Aishwarya in same movie.
@RK
i consciously made it a point not to elaborate on her talk regarding Aids jaago series of films as she did not give enough interesting points about those series rather than just saying that it was funded by melinda gates foundation.
The whole talk was about her past and experiences about the films which she directed rather than film making process as such.
But there was one question i did not add :
It was about her adapting screenplays rather than writing an orginal story herself… well, she said she was a director more than a writer. She said its not in her to sit in a room and write, she is better off dealing with people than words.
i have my reservations about Mississippi masala.. its a strictly ok movie according to me…
salaam bombay is one movie which i liked for her resume… others are just ok..again nothing great about them….
even in the aids jaago series.. i liked the santhosh sivan,farhan,vishal and mira nair in that order….
she has got one of the great stories in shantaram… lets see how the movie comes out,she cannot go wrong with depp in it especially
i just was thinking how would the movie come out if shantaram was given to farhan or santhosh sivan or vishal or mani ratnam or shekar kapur or varma?
Mira nair is one of my most favorite filmmakers from India. It really gets on my nerves when somebody puts her in the same league as Gurindher Chadda and Deepa Mehta. She is undoubtedly much better than both of them put together.
Looking forward for Shantaram. After watching “Namesake”, I am completely convinced that she is the best person to direct Shantaram.
Thanks for sharing this.
I went to a Mira Nair conference in Spain a couple of years ago and it was cancelled because not enough people had attended, so she only spoke to the press. :-w
nice article. also the Aids Jago series can be viewed at http://www.jaman.com/aidsjaago
she is a smart women and have to admire for her struggle and success she achieved… she derives a lot of confidence and examples from her life experiences when she makes movies… thats why u see lot her movies are based on human relationships across different age groups and diff. cultures….
Well she is my favourite film-maker!
OH! Love her storytelling. The ideal filmmaker for me.
Btw, I have an Anurag Kashyap interview(not exactly an interview. we met when he came to Varanasi in earl Feb.)
Anyone here wants That?
I got it typed and saved…for my college newsletter.
Yep. Mail me at mithun.gang [at] gmail.com
whay don’t u publish it on PFC in project iview.
if not then mail me at shailesh97ch26 [at] yahoo.com
sent to both of you…
The edited version(you know, had to write it for my college newsletter. Boy! an AK interview for a college newsletter) is not worth Project i-view…
thanks PJ
PJ, i read it. it was a nice description of ur meet with AK. u should publish it on PFC so that every aspiring and passionate film lover read it.
btw again thanks for that.
PJ sent it to me plsss….anandk9 [at] yahoo.com
PJ, are you not already an author at PFC. There is a name PJ in authors list.
If you are different, then please send your meeting record/interview to PFC at
—[ passionforcinema [at] gmail [dot] com ]—-
PFC has first right on it. Your college newsletter comes later
or PFC authors who have got it from PJ, please forward it to Iview address.:)
pj
apnaa article yahan chhap do
moses never thought that he was a messiah
mandela never thought that he is a messiah
mohandas gandhi was doing experiments with truth
there are messiahs, who don’t think of themselves as messiah.
than there are people who think that they are messiah. but they are not. you see its such a beautiful feeling to be a messiah. aah, so satisfying.
give us a chance of savor something from the man. who, before anybody else could, has realized that he is a messiah. harbinger of a new era.
even in the west this messiah thing went out of fashion with Ginsberg and Beatles.
thank god we live in india. the chosen land of messiahs from eternity.
>:/
So much coleege-like…isn’t it!
Now don’t blaim me(had to edit the joke and AK’s answers bigtime. College newsletter, yaar!).
Besides, you guys asked for it!
Good interview, bharat, thanks for sharing it here.