I attended a talk by Mira Nair last Sunday at Emory University. The hall was packed with desis (as usual). She gave an autobiographical lecture about how she traveled the path down her film career. I was so very impressed. She was one great lady. Born in Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, she traveled to Calcutta for her initial inspiration and then onwards to Delhi University and then to Harvard. She rejected an admission to Cambridge University because she admits she has a chip on her shoulder against the British. And even today, she turned down the next project for Harry Potter series because the idea of spending 3 years in Britain did not appeal to her. Apparently, she chooses movies by asking herself a simple question. "Can someone else do this movie?". If there is, then she wouldn't do it. She wants to take on projects where only she can contribute a unique perspective.
During the question and answer session, a finance student asked about her financial model for her projects. Usually she says that she likes to fund her own money and rather not deal with a single source of funds, since in that case she might have to compromise or even lose "the final cut" of her movie. She usually approaches multiple distributors to fund part of her project, so that she still retain most of the creative control over it. Very intelligent.
The ordeal that she went through during her first major movie 'Salaam Bombay' was impressive.
I haven't seen many of her films. Should try to. The ones I've seen are
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