By Stephanie Ornelas
Mira Nair first aspired to be an actor, but working as a street performer in India made her realize she was destined for so much more. I was part of a theater company in New Delhi and Calcutta, and really learned how to tell a story by being on the streets and mostly performing, which was an interesting grounding, says the director in a recent Spotlight Event with Sundance Collab. I had no idea this would lead me to filmmaking.
When Nair joined the online event to talk about creating magic in cinema, the first thing she said to moderator Erica Elson was, I'm surprised I could deserve such attention. Elson responded the way anyone in the audience would: I'm not! Of course no one was surprised. Known for her groundbreaking films, including Mississippi Masala (1992 Sundance Film Festival), Salaam Bombay!, and Monsoon Wedding, Nair has been working to redefine Indian cinema with a fresh perspective, one project at a time. The filmmaker's warm and hilarious tone is just the tip of the iceberg.
Below, discover some of our favorite quotes from the conversation, including Nair's advice on choosing collaborators and what inspired her to move from nonfiction to fiction projects.
On finding the right collaborators:
Filmmaking is a process of taking each other further, rather than just joining the dots and saying yes' and getting the job done, which is sort of the most unexciting thing for me. The most interesting thing is pushing the envelope and trying to do things you would not have done before. Who can take you further? Who can join the dream, and who can make the dream happen? [With] Salaam Bombay!, they told me a hundred times that it's not possible. It's not possible to shoot in the railway stations. It's not possible to sing in the streets of India. It's not possible to put an illiterate street kid opposite a movie star and expect the world to be real. But it's important to work with people who share the same bit of madness and a lot of disciplined passion about how to get it done.
On shifting from documentaries to fiction:
As I made four or five of these cinema v rit documentaries, I wanted more control over the storytelling and yet keep the power of what I saw in life - the inexplicability of life, the unexpected turn. [That's] what I used to see living in the back alleys. And that led me to make Salaam Bombay!, my first fiction film. I wanted to tell it from the beginning but retain what life gave me, which was that the truth is more powerful than fiction sometimes could ever be.
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