Filmmaker Mira Nair talks about her film Reluctant Fundamentalistand her desire to complete her dream project Shantaram
Renowned filmmaker Mira Nair said her debut feature film Salaam Bombay was her most valued piece of work for the impact it made to the lives of street children. “If I were to choose one movie which makes me proud, it has to be Salaam Bombay... It was a movie directly impacting government policy towards the street kids,” she said.
Recounting how she went about scripting the movie, Nair said the Oscar nominated Salaam Bombay was also one of those rare instances wherein a film directly led her to launch an NGO Salaam Baalak Trust, which has changed the lives of thousands of street kids.
Both Mira and Sooni Taraporewala, who wrote the screenplay for the film, spent over four months witnessing the activities of street kids in the financial capital before proceeding on to scripting. This was followed by a workshop for 130 kids and the final selection of 24, who made it to the screen.
The film, set and shot on location in Kamathipura, the red light district in Mumbai, chronicled the day-to-day life of street children, drug-pushers, pimps and prostitutes.
It depicted the life of a young kid Krishna, who had come to the big city to earn `500 and nurtured the dream of going back to his mother someday.
Starring Shafiq Syed as young Krishna, the film launched the career of Irrfan Khan. Raghuvir Yadav and Nana Patekar played the roles of a drug addict and a pimp.
The movie is set to be released nationally by a multiplex chain to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release.
“It is absolutely thrilling to bring Salaam Bombay back. I am proud of this film and quite happy that it is re-releasing again. The film changed the lives of people,” Nair said.
Nair, who has directed 22 films, also spoke about the troubles she had getting finances for the recently released Reluctant Fundamentalist. The film has a political subject — a young Pakistani man chasing corporate success on Wall Street who gets embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family’s homeland in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. “I was sure that I was not going to the West to finance the film, they would water it down. We went to people we thought would be open to support and it took us three years to arrange the finances,” she said, stressing that the steadfast support of the Doha Film Institute was crucial.
Post production work on the film, which was shot in lahore, Delhi, New York and Turkey, was carried out in Mumbai and that saved $1 million, Nair said.
Nair said she is otherwise uncomfortable producing movies, as some Indian directors do, as it is exhausting, but in a departure, would be producing a movie next year to be directed by Ab Tak 56 fame Shimit Amin, who edited The Reluctant Fundamentalist. “I would be producing a film next year which Shimit will direct. Shimit is very good at his work,” she said.
At present, Mira is concentrating on work around the musical based on her film Monsoon Wedding, to be staged on the Broadway next year, she said.
Additionally, Mira has also been signed by Disney to make a film on a chess player from Kampala in Uganda who makes a name for herself in the international arena, Nair said.
“I am doing a film with Disney about an eight-year-old girl, who learnt chess using bottle caps and won the chess Olympics three years ago. I am inspired by this story,” she said.
Nair chose Pakistan-born Riz Ahmed over Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor to play the protagonist in Reluctant Fundamentalist as she was looking for “worldliness” in the character.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist is based in three cities — Delhi, lahore and New York. The film has been adapted from the cult 2007 novel by Mohsin Hamid about the tragic fall of a Pakistani youth because of love.
Mira did not cast Ranbir in spite of having auditioned him for the role of the protagonist in the movie.
Ranbir was auditioned for the role of protagonist Changez in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which ultimately went to the Pakistan-born Riz Ahmed.
“For Reluctant Fundamentalist I had auditioned Ranbir Kapoor. He is an amazing actor. But the role needed worldliness which I found in Riz Ahmed. You can make the talent do a lot of things but you cannot direct intelligence,” Nair said.
The character goes from the streets of lahore, studies at an university in US, epitomises the American dream as Changez goes up to achieve success on the Wall Street and also loves Kate Hudson. There were many facets involved, she said.
“I think Indian actors whenever they portray the role of NRIs they fake it... They cannot get it right,” she said.
Even Imran Khan had auditioned for film but couldn’t make it. Pakistan-born Riz Ahmed made the cut after an over two years search as he possessed the right qualities which the character needed as he was born in Pakistan, lived in England and is also an active rapper, Nair said.
The film will release next month in the sub-continent. Filmmaker Mira Nair has said that she still yearns to bring to screen her dream project Shantaram. It is a 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts in which Australian bank robber and heroin addict who escaped from Pentridge Prison flees to India.
The novel is commended by many for its portrayal of tumultuous life in Mumbai. “I still yearn to make Shantaram. It has been put to bed and when it rises I hope I will be making it. Whenever the subject and the timing is right, I hope to do it,” Nair said. Initially, Hollywood actor Johnny Depp was to play the lead, along with Amitabh Bachchan. Nair terminated the plan to shoot the film a few years back and the project got shelved.
PTI