Mira Nair Exclusive FemaleFirst Interview

25-07-2007 13:19

Mira Nair is one of the most successful Indian female directors who began filming documentaries before turning to movies.Her film debut Salaam Bombay wone the Golden Camera at Cannes before going on to be nominated for and Academy Award.On the promotion trail for her new film The Namesake, an adaption of the Pulitzer prize winning novel by Jhumpa Lahiri Mira had a quick chat with me about her new film and her career.

Your new movie Namesake was origionally a novel what attracted you to it because you bought the rights quite quickly?

I happened to read the story, the novel, on a plane when I was mourning for someone I had lost very close to me in New York city. I read this novel by chance and I felt that Jhumpa (the author) understood exactly what I was feeling and what it feels like to lose a parent in a country which is not actually home.Also it brought together the two cities Calcutta and New York which I have been born , and raised and grown up in. I just felt that I was born to make this film having experienced the loss but also having lived in these two worlds for so long.