MIRA NAIR REGARDS THE NAMESAKE AS MOST PERSONAL PROJECT

The Namesake is the most personal project to date for director Mira Nair because it came to her at a time when she was grieving a devastating loss of someone close to her.

Returning home to India, Nair read the novel by Jhumpa Lahiri which helped her to heal.

“And it was in that period that I was actually returning to India two months after this death to film the end of Vanity Fair. And on the plane I read Jhumpa’s book which I had bought months earlier and had not opened. And in the book it was like I had met a person who understood my grief.”

The story of a Calcutta family who moves to New York and must adapt to the cultural and emotional differences resonated with Nair, a native of India who also feels caught between two worlds.

“As much as I loved the story that Jhumpa was telling it was also an opportunity to unite the two worlds that I know and love and have lived in all my life. The unique thing is that the energy of Calcutta and New York City are very similar. They are the cities of many bridges, of deep culture, energy; many ways they are similar and I wanted to film the two cities I knew from the beginning as if they were one because that is the state of an immigrant’s mind and soul, is that you are in one place but you’re in two places or three places at every moment.”

Mira is currently in production on a feature length documentary of The Beatles and their connection to India’s spiritual practices in the sixties. Then Mira teams up with Johnny Depp for Shantaram which she describes as an action adventure on three continents. Johnny is also producing the film along with Brad Pitt.