Mira Nair - biography

“It’s only at this age that I can say the word ‘art’ without flinching.”

“I always like to reveal the fact that the emperor has no clothes.  And children are best at that.  They teach us how to see the world in that sense.  They are without artifice; they see it for what it is.  I am drawn to that ruthless honesty.”

“I know what it’s like to be in one place and dream of another.  I also know what it’s like to feel that nostalgia is a fairly useless thing because it is stasis.”

“I am an independent film-maker first and foremost.  I have always cut my own cloth.”

“They say now in America that final cut doesn’t mean anything.  As Harvey Weinstein said to some film-maker, ‘You can have final cut.  I’ll open your film in Arkansas.’”

“Truth is more peculiar than fiction.  Life is really a startling place.”

“I grew up in a very small town which is remote even by Indian standards.  I always dreamed of the world.”

“I want to question what the outside is and who defines it.  I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring.”

“Never treat anything you do as a stepping stone.  Do it fully, and follow it completely.”

Mira Nair directed the following films:
Mississippi Masala (1991)
The Perez Family (1995)
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)
11’09’’01 – September 11 (2002)
Vanity Fair (2004)
New York, I Love You (2008)
Amelia (2009)
New York, I Love You (2009)


Mira Nair contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)