Interview With Mira
Hi Folks,
Had my Holi gift last week by getting to spend one on one time with Mira Nair (along with the SAAFA co founder Pooja Bhardwaj), when she was in SF for her press day.
Here are the extracts for the interview in our latest newsletter-
http://www.saafa.org/newsletter/Mar07/mar07.htm
But that was for the press. What was not in the newspaper, was my impression of the person. That is here, only in PfC. Most media created Artsy celebrities have fallen flat when I have actually met them. The reasons include, being too Artsy flaky, being too full of themselves, taking themselves too seriously, being too greedy as in once you mention America they are like we want business class airfare+ relatives ka khana peena + all that crap which follows, or being too hypotcitical as in what they say is not what they mean as in “no I am different” means “show me the money!” and I have nothing against “show me the money” except I like upfront “show me the money types.”
Persons who have fallen flat when I met/communicated with them are folks such as Shekhar Kapur/Aparna Sen, etc for one reason or the other.
Then we have someone such as Mira Nair. I had a vivid picture of her as being pretty snobbish (considering my previous requests for interview, had elicited not even a “I busy,” just silence). But when I wrapped up my interview I was a changed man.
The only thoughts I had were one of genuine respect for what she has achieved, her acute business sense of the world that pays her bills- something which most people don’t seem to respect, but I have a great deal of awe for people who support the expenses of other people in this line!! Her other qualities (and no she did not ask me to write about them…hell she was just craving a drink in a pub of SF….and no I have no interest in acting in her films….I hate being in a studio…can’t stand the light and heat) include her super intelligence (as apparent in her forthright answers and self awareness), her sensitivity (like i said, scripts are written on the street you just have to observe it, not in a room with a computer or over Starbucks) and her drive to be the best in her craft.
I also maintain I am indifferent about Namesake (I’m more of a masala film kind, but that is me!). But I’m certainly in respect for this Delhiwalli and her other works like Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay
One of the most intelligent person’s I have met…and a bundle of
energy and oh yes she does not take easily to fools !!
Will await her next one Shantaram with Jonny Depp
Sincerely,
Vivek “it’s a known fact that I have a soft corner for punjabi
Dellhiwalli’ s, but now you see why” Kumar
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
Super!
Hey dats a cool one…