Commentators:
Ashish Chadha, University of Rhode Island
Karan Mahajan, Brown University
Mira Nair is a world-renowned Indian-American film director and producer. Born and raised in Rourkela, India, Mira went on to study at Delhi and Harvard universities. She began her career as a stage actor in India before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she transitioned to documentary films at 20 years old, with films such as So Far from India (1983) and Children of a Desired Sex (1987). Her narrative feature debut, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Camera d’Or and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language film.
A resourceful and determined independent filmmaker who casts unknowns alongside acclaimed actors, Mira has directed many films, including Mississippi Masala (1991), Hysterical Blindness (2002), Vanity Fair (2004), The Namesake (2006), Amelia (2009), Queen of Katwe (2016), and A Suitable Boy (2020). She also directed a segment of the anthology film New York, I Love You (2008). She is the founder of the production company Mirabai Films and the Maisha Film Lab, an annual filmmaking workshop in Uganda.