Mira Nair

❧

Wikipedia

Mira Nair
Nair at the 2008 IIFW Masterclass Directors Meet
Born (1957-10-15) 15 October 1957 (age 68)
Rourkela, Orissa, India
Alma materHarvard University (BA)
Occupation
  • Filmmaker
Years active1986–present
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1981; div. 1989)​
  • ​
    (m. 1991)​
ChildrenZohran Mamdani
RelativesRama Duwaji (daughter-in-law)
Awards

Mira Nair (IAST: Mīrā Nāyar; born 15 October 1957) is an Indian-American filmmaker. She is known for directing independent dramas through her production company Mirabai Films. She began her career making documentaries, but went on to create feature films. She is well known for films that sometimes touch on political themes or controversial topics such as how racial tension and prejudice are depicted in Mississippi Masala. She has received two prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and four prizes from the Venice Film Festival as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards and two César Awards. Her films have also received two Academy Award nominations.

Nair made her feature film debut directing the drama film Salaam Bombay! (1988), which received nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award for Best International Feature Film. Her next film was the romantic drama Mississippi Masala (1991), for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film.

She directed the comedy-drama Monsoon Wedding (2001), which won the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice International Film Festival; it was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best International Feature Film.

She grew up in India and later moved to the United States, where she attended Harvard University. She lived in Uganda with her husband for a few years, but currently resides in the U.S. She is married to Mahmood Mamdani and is the mother of Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City.

Mira Nair's 1991 film Mississippi Masala earned $7.3 million, won Best Original Screenplay at Venice, and led her to meet her future husband, political scientist Mahmood Mamdani. Her biggest breakthrough came with Monsoon Wedding, made for about $1.5 million and ultimately grossing over $30 million worldwide; its $13.9 million U.S. gross set a North American record for an Indian film until 2017, and it won her the Golden Lion—the first for a woman director. Celebrated by critics like Roger Ebert, the film cemented Nair's reputation for crossing cultural boundaries. She went on to direct works such as Vanity Fair, The Namesake, and Disney's Queen of Katwe (2016), which earned a 94% Rotten Tomatoes rating and featured her son, Zohran Mamdani—now New York City's mayor-elect—as music supervisor.[1]

Early life and education

Mira Nair was born on 15 October 1957,[2][3][4] in Rourkela, Orissa (now Odisha), India,[5][6] the youngest of three children, and the only girl.[7]

Her father, Amrit Lal Nair, was an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, and her mother, Praveen Nair, was a social worker.[8][9][5] Her family is of Punjabi origin with roots in Delhi,[10][11] and is Hindu.[12] The family name "Nayyar" was changed by her grandfather, although one of her uncles continues to use it.[13][14]

Nair grew up in a "colonial-style bungalow, with [a] spacious veranda and terracotta-tiled floor". Her father, Amrit, was a remote character, who was "not much fun", and her parents later (around 1990) separated, after years of tension and fighting. Nair appreciated Amrit's love of Persian poetry and song, but he drove his children hard, insisting that they "spend their time usefully". He also argued with her brothers, Vikram and Gautam, a lot, but being a girl, Mira was regarded as less important, and was allowed to just get on with doing what interested her.[15] Praveen had a strong influence on the young Mira, particularly her independence, confidence, fearlessness, and social awareness.[15] Nair did not directly challenge her father in the home, but in her early documentary films she attacked many of his attitudes, such as the hypocrisy of male ideas about "virtue" in India Cabaret (1985), and the Indian custom by which female fetuses were often aborted, in Children of Desired Sex (1987).[15]

Nair first attended Ispat English Medium School in Rourkela, from ages 7 to 10, between 1964 and 1967.[8] Her family moved to Bhubaneswar, where she lived until age 18. She attended an English-medium high school at Loreto Convent, Tara Hall in Kaithu, Shimla,[16] where she developed a fondness for English literature.[citation needed]

In her teens, she taught herself to type and play the sitar; painted; wrote poetry and performed in local theatre, and was also an outstanding student.[15]

She studied at Miranda House—a college for women at Delhi University—where she majored in sociology.[a] While at university, she belonged to an amateur drama company in Delhi. There she worked with Indian theatre director Barry John.[17] At university she performed in Equus, Habeas Corpus, and as Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.[15] She also did political street theatre in Calcutta with the Bengali playwright Badal Sircar.[15]

After turning down the offer of a full scholarship to Cambridge University in England[9] (later saying "I had a chip on my shoulder about the Brits") in 1976,[15] aged 19, she moved to the US to attend Harvard University on a scholarship.[17][5] She enjoyed acting and continued to perform throughout her first year at Harvard. Heading to New York City during the summer break, she worked with American dramatist Joseph Chaikin and met Judith Malina and Julian Beck, who founded The Living Theatre.[15]

She was admitted to the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies based on her photographic submission, but then dropped photography, preferring filmmaking. She attended the introductory photography course that was being taught by her future first husband, Mitch Epstein, in 1977, and she did some work for him on his freelance assignments.[15] She graduated in 1979.[18] Her friend and future collaborator Sooni Taraporevala was a classmate at Harvard.[15]

Career

Before she became a filmmaker, Nair was interested in acting. While in India, she performed in plays written by Badal Sircar, a Bengali dramatist and theatre director. While she studied film at Harvard, Nair also became involved in the theatre program. She won a Boylston Prize for her performance of Jocasta's speech from Seneca's Oedipus.[7]

In 2002 Nair was interviewed by American theatre critic and biographer John Lahr, in which she shared much about her early life and career to this point.[15]

In a 2004 interview with FF2 Media's Jan Huttner, Nair commented on her filmmaking process:[19]

It's all in how I do it. Keeping the bums on the seats is very important to me. It requires that ineffable thing called rhythm and balance in movie-making. Foils have to be created, counter-weights. From the intimacy, let's say, of a love scene to the visceral, jugular quality of war. That shift is something in the editing, how one cuts from the intimate to the epic that keeps you there waiting. The energy propels you.

In an interview with Image Journal in 2017, Nair said that she had chosen directing over any other art form because it was collaborative. She said, "That's why I am neither a photographer nor writer, I like to work with people, and my strength, if any, is that. Working with life."[20]

Documentaries

In her early years, Nair primarily made documentaries in which she explored Indian cultural traditions. For her film thesis at Harvard, between 1978 and 1979, she produced a black-and-white film titled Jama Masjid Street Journal. In the 18-minute film, Nair explored the streets of Old Delhi and had casual conversations with Indian locals,[17] using a Bolex camera. The film's name derives from a Muslim community near the Jama Masjid, a large mosque in Old Delhi.[15]

After Nair graduated and moved to New York, American filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, a pioneer of the cinéma vérité style of documentary filmmaking, liked Jama Masjid Street Journal and helped Nair secure a grant for her next film.[15] Her second documentary, So Far from India (1982), was a 52-minute film that follows an Indian newspaper dealer living in the subways of New York. His pregnant wife waits for him to return home to India.[21] The protagonist, Ashok, slowly becomes estranged from not only his family, but also his Indian heritage. Nair directed So Far from India as a commentary on the life of an immigrant separated from his home and suffering cultural isolation.[22] The film won Best Documentary at the American Film Festival in Wrocław, Poland and New York's Global Village Film Festival.[17]

Her third documentary, India Cabaret, with cinematography by her husband Mitch Epstein, opened the inaugural Indian International Film Festival, in Hyderabad, in 1985. The film was very well received at the festival.[15] It portrays the exploitation of female strippers in Bombay, and follows a customer who regularly visits a local strip club while his wife stays at home.[17] Nair raised roughly $130,000 for the project. The 59-minute film was shot over a span of two months. India Cabaret was widely criticized, primarily by Indian men, who objected to the portrayal of women working as strippers or those who are forced to marry. In New York some opponents tried to block release of the film on WNET.[22] The film was bought by PBS, but then rejected by Channel 13, the network's New York affiliate.[15] Nair's family,[7] especially her father, also criticized it. He said she should not have positively portrayed these women. Nair created India Cabaret to reveal the prejudice shown towards sex workers.[22] Some feminists criticized her for filming these women through the male gaze, due to the sexual nature of the strip clubs. The film received several awards, including the Blue Ribbon award and two awards for Best Documentary.[22]

Children of a Desired Sex (1987) was the fourth documentary Nair directed. Made for Canadian television, this film explored how amniocentesis was being used to determine the sex of fetuses.[23] Additionally, the premise of the film seeks to bring to light the experiences of women who live in a society where there is a large preference towards giving birth to male children.[22] Despite how controversial this topic may be, Nair highlighted the struggle and the dilemma these women go through.[24]

Living in Cape Town, South Africa, for around three years while her second husband took up a post at the university there, Nair worked on scripts with her friend Sooni Taraporevala, and made a telemovie based on Abraham Verghese's book My Own Country: A Doctor's Story for Showtime.[15][24] The film tells the story of Dr Verghese's real-life experiences in treating HIV/AIDS patients in East Tennessee.[25] Nair also spent six weeks assisting children who lived in local townships to make films of their lives.[15]

In 2001, with The Laughing Club of India, she explored yoga based on laughter. Its founder, Madan Kararia, spoke of the club's history and the growth of laughing clubs across the country, and subsequently the world. The documentary included testimonials from members of the laughter clubs who described how the practice had improved or changed their lives. Its featured segments included a group of workers in an electrical products factory in Mumbai who took time off to laugh during their coffee break.[7][15]

Feature films

In June 1987, with Taraporevala, Nair researched and co-wrote Salaam Bombay!, which turned out to be an enormous and exhausting undertaking.[15] Nair sought out real street children to more authentically portray the lives of children who survived in the streets and were deprived of a true childhood.[7][26] Mitch Epstein was co-producer and production designer on the film. They struggled to get financing, but eventually Nair "managed to cajole completion cash out of a French company".[15] On 19 May 1988, three days after Nair had finished cutting the film, it had its world première at the closing gala at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. It earned a 15-minute standing ovation, and won the Caméra d'Or (the first Indian film to do so)[15] and the Prix du public (Audience Prize). It was nominated at the 1989 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Although it did not do well at the box office, it won 23 international awards.[27]

Nair and Taraporevala next worked together on the 1991 film Mississippi Masala, which told the story of Ugandan-born Indians (displaced by Idi Amin in 1972) in Mississippi. Their research for the film started in March 1989, and was their first visit to Africa. Nair met her second husband, Asian Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani, when she interviewed him in Nairobi after having read his book From Citizen to Refugee, about the expulsion of Asians.[15] The film centers on a carpet-cleaner business owner (Denzel Washington) who falls in love with the daughter (Sarita Choudhury) of one of his Indian clients. The film revealed the prejudice in black and Indian communities. Mississippi Masala was heavily inspired by the history of Indian emigrants in Uganda. Nair was inspired by the fact that Ugandan-born Indians often aligned themselves more with white people, especially due to the worse treatment Black Ugandans endured.[28] It was well received by critics, earned a standing ovation at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, and won three awards at the Venice Film Festival.[17]

Her next feature, The Perez Family (1995) was not a success. The producer said that it had "too much plot", and a critic wrote, "It looks like a musical after all the songs have been cut out."[15] The next one, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996), which Nair later called "an aberration", also bombed.[15] In that year, the family moved to South Africa for three years, where her career "stagnated".[15]

Monsoon Wedding, written by Sabrina Dhawan, was filmed over only 30 days, using only a small crew, including some of Nair's acquaintances and relatives. Released in 2001, the film told the story of an Indian Punjabi wedding.[24] In the end, the film grossed over $30 million worldwide. The film was awarded the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, making Nair the first female recipient of the award.[29]

Nair directed the 2002 television film, Hysterical Blindness for HBO. The film is a romance set 1987 starring Uma Thurman in the lead role. The made-for-TV movie would prove a success for both HBO and Thurman, with the latter receiving a Golden Globe for her acting in the film.[24] This was followed by an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's epic Vanity Fair (2004).[19]

In 2005, Nair was asked to direct Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but turned it down to work on The Namesake, reportedly after her son Zohran persuaded her that she was the only one who could direct the latter.[21][30] Based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri, Sooni Taraporevala's screenplay follows the son of Indian immigrants who wants to fit in with New York City society, but struggles to get away from his family's traditional ways. The film was presented with the Dartmouth Film Award and was also honored with the Pride of India award at the Bollywood Movie Awards.[31][32] Next she directed the Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia (2009), starring Hilary Swank and Richard Gere.[33] The film predominantly received negative reviews.[34][35] It was also a box-office bomb, grossing $19.6 million against a budget of $40 million.[36]

In 2012, Nair directed The Reluctant Fundamentalist, a thriller based on the best-selling novel by Mohsin Hamid, starring Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber, and Kiefer Sutherland. It tells a post-9/11 story about the impact of the terrorist attacks on one Pakistani man and his treatment by Americans in reaction to them. It opened the 2012 Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy to critical acclaim, and was released worldwide in early 2013. It did not do well at the box office.[37][38][39]

Nair's 2016 film Queen of Katwe, a Disney production, starred Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo, and was based on a biography of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi[40] written by American author Tim Crothers. The film earned much acclaim.[26] It had a budget of $15 million and grossed $10.4 million.[41][42] Nair's son Zohran Mamdani appears as an extra in the film, and one of his songs performed under his rapper pseudonym Young Cardamom, "#1 Spice", also features in the film.[26]

A book about Mira Nair's films was published 2018 by Amardeep Singh The Films of Mira Nair - Diaspora vérité.[43] University Press of Mississippi, ISBN 9781496821164

Short films

Nair's short films include A Fork, a Spoon and a Knight, inspired by the Nelson Mandela quote, "Difficulties break some men but make others."

She contributed a segment to the anthology film 11'09"01 September 11 (2002) in which 11 filmmakers reacted to the terrorist attack on New York on 11 September 2001. Her film dramatises a true story, of a New York Pakistani family whose son, Mohammad Salman Hamdani, missing after the event, was suspected by police and reported by press as being one of the terrorists. When his body was eventually found months later, it turned out that he had rushed to the scene to help people escape the wreckage, and was killed himself.[44]

Other titles include How Can It Be? (2008), Migration (2008), New York, I Love You (2009) and her collaboration with among others, Emir Kusturica and Guillermo Arriaga on the anthology film Words with Gods.[citation needed]

Other work

A long-time activist, Nair set up an annual film-makers' laboratory, Maisha Film Lab, in Kampala, Uganda. Since 2005, young directors in East Africa have been trained at the nonprofit facility with the motto that "If we don't tell our stories, no one else will".[45] As of 2018 Maisha was building a school with architect Raul Pantaleo, winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and his company, Studio Tamassociati.[46]

In 1998, Nair used the profits from Salaam Bombay! to create the Salaam Baalak Trust, which works with street children in India.[47] A musical adaptation of Monsoon Wedding, directed by Nair, premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, running from 5 May to 16 July 2017.[48][49] As of 2015, she lived in New York City, where she was an adjunct professor in the Film Division of the School of Arts for Columbia University in Manhattan. The university had a collaboration with Nair's Maisha Film Lab, and offered opportunities for international students to work together and share their interests in film-making.[50]

In July 2020, journalist Ellen Barry announced that her Pulitzer Prize-nominated story "The Jungle Prince of Delhi" about the "royal family of Oudh", published in The New York Times, would be adapted into a web series for Amazon Studios by Nair.[51][52] In March 2021 it was announced that Nair would direct a ten-episode TV series for Disney+ reimagining the National Treasure series with a new cast.[53]

Personal life

In 1977, Nair met her first husband, photographer Mitch Epstein, when taking photography classes at Harvard University.[7] He was her lecturer, and they married in 1981 in India, in a traditional Punjabi wedding, despite Epstein being "a Jewish boy from Holyoke, Massachusetts". They were together for 12 years, of which they were married for 8. They divorced around 1989.[15]

On 29 March 1989, Nair met her second husband, Indo-Ugandan political scientist Mahmood Mamdani, in Nairobi, Kenya, while doing research for the film Mississippi Masala. She had read his book From Citizen to Refugee, about the expulsion of Asians.[15] Nair moved in with Mamdani on campus at Makerere University, where he was teaching. They married in 1991, and their son, Zohran Mamdani, was born in Kampala, Uganda, in the same year.[15] In 1996 the family moved to Cape Town, South Africa, for Mahmood to take up an appointment as head of the African studies program at the University of Cape Town, where they lived for around three years.[15]

In 2020, her son, Zohran Mamdani, won a seat representing Astoria, Queens, in the New York State Assembly.[54][55] He became the mayor-elect of New York City on 5 November 2025.[56]

She has two older brothers, Vikram and Gautam.[15]

Nair has been an enthusiastic yoga practitioner for decades; when making a film, she has the cast and crew start the day with a yoga session.[10]

Political views

In July 2013, Nair declined an invitation to the Haifa International Film Festival as a "guest of honor" to protest Israel's policies toward Palestine.[57][58] In posts on Twitter, Nair wrote: "I will go to Israel when the walls come down. I will go to Israel when occupation is gone...I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when Apartheid is over. I stand w/ Palestine for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) & the larger BDS Mov't."[59] Nair was praised by PACBI, which said her decision to boycott Israel "helps to highlight the struggle against colonialism and apartheid."[60]

Recognition and awards

Nair at the 2013 Zanzibar International Film Festival

At the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1988, Nair was awarded the New Generation Award, a career achievement award, by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association.[61]

In 2012, Nair was awarded India's third highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan, by then president of India, Pratibha Patil.[62][63]

Films

Many of Nair's films have won awards, including:

Many of her films have also been nominated for some significant awards; a selection of these follow.

Filmography

Feature fiction films

Year Title Notes
1988 Salaam Bombay! Nominated - Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Nominated - Filmfare Award for Best Director
1991 Mississippi Masala Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Film
1995 The Perez Family
1996 Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
1998 My Own Country Made for television (Showtime)
2001 Monsoon Wedding Winner - Golden Lion
Nominated - BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2002 Hysterical Blindness Made for television (HBO)
2004 Vanity Fair
2006 The Namesake
2009 Amelia
2012 The Reluctant Fundamentalist
2016 Queen of Katwe

Documentary films

Year Title Notes (Awards)
1979 Jama Street Masjid Journal Film thesis at Harvard
1982 So Far From India Best Documentary at American Film Festival

Best Documentary at New York's Global Village Film Festival

1984 India Cabaret Best Documentary at New York's Global Village Film Festival

Awarded the Blue Ribbon

1987 Children of a Desired Sex [23]
2001 The Laughing Club of India [7]

Short films

Year Title Notes
1993 The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat
2002 India Segment of 11'9"01 September 11
2007 Migration.. Segment of AIDS Jaago
2008 Kosher Vegetarian Segment of New York, I Love You
2008 How can it be? Segment of 8
2014 God Room Segment of Words with Gods

Television series

Year Title Notes
2020 A Suitable Boy 5 episodes[78]
2022 National Treasure: Edge of History Episode "I'm a Ghost"

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ This is reported by this source, but not mentioned in a long 2002 interview.[15]

References

  1. ↑ [fortune.com/2025/11/05/mira-nair-zohran-mamdani-mother-hollywood-career-director-movies-awards-mirabai-films/ "Mira Nair, Zohran Mamdani's 68-year-old mother, who hit it big in Hollywood directing"]. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  2. ↑ "Mira Nair". Frauendatenbank fembio.org. 31 March 2023. Archived from the original on 21 July 2024. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  3. ↑ "Mira Nair". filmportal.de (in German). 15 October 1957. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  4. ↑ "Mira Nair". Encyclopedia Britannica. 11 October 2025. Archived from the original on 30 October 2025. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 "Mira Nair education and career path: How Zohran Mamdani's mother shaped her own revolution—on screen and beyond". The Times of India. 25 June 2025. Archived from the original on 5 October 2025. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  6. ↑ "Namesake a tribute to Ritwik Ghatak, says Mira Nair". cities.expressindia.com. 28 May 2005. Archived from the original on 4 December 2005. Retrieved 24 October 2025. ...said she was overwhelmed to be in the city [[[Kolkata]]] she calls home. 'I was born in Rourkela but summers meant holidays in Kolkata's Cornfield road and Alipore'.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Muir, John Kenneth (2006). Mercy in Her Eyes: The Films of Mira Nair. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 156–158. ISBN 9781557836496.
  8. 1 2 Mohapatra, Debabrata (6 June 2025). "Mira Nair's son, in NYC mayoral race, has Odisha buzzing". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 26 July 2025. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  9. 1 2 Mehzabeen, Mallika (17 October 2024). "Meet director whose father is an IAS officer, her film made it to the Oscars, and who married a Ugandan scientist, her name is..." India.com. Archived from the original on 28 December 2024. Retrieved 30 October 2025.
  10. 1 2 Dupont, Joan (21 September 2001). "Mira Nair Peels Back Layers of Punjabi Society". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 1 December 2001. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  11. ↑ Greer, Bonnie (12 June 2002). "Mira Nair (2)". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 20 October 2002.
  12. ↑ Gajjar, Saloni (7 December 2020). "Mira Nair - How a suitable boy-girl love story transcends class culture". NBC News. Nair herself comes from a Hindu family, while her husband is Muslim.
  13. ↑ "Mira Masala". The Times of India. 22 September 2001.
  14. ↑ "Mirage!". The Times of India. 6 November 2001.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Nair, Mira (2 December 2002). "Whirlwind". The New Yorker (Interview). Interviewed by Lahr, John. Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Published in the print edition of the December 9, 2002, issue.
  16. ↑ "I'd eat onions before kissing Shashi Tharoor: Mira Nair". The Times of India.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Blenski, Simon; Debreyne, Adrien Maurice; Hegewisch, Martha Eugina; Trivedi, Avani Anant (8 May 2005). "Mira Nair". University of Minnesota. hdl:11299/166286. PDF
  18. ↑ Walsh, Colleen (4 March 2022). "Filmmaker Mira Nair donates archive to Harvard". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
  19. 1 2 Nair, Mira (15 August 2004). "Jan Chats with Internationally-Acclaimed Director Mira Nair About Her New Film 'Vanity Fair'". FF2 Media (Interview). Interviewed by Huttner, Jan. Archived from the original on 18 January 2025. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  20. ↑ "A Conversation with Mira Nair". Image Journal. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  21. 1 2 "Mira Nair". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1 May 1997). Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora : Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity (1st ed.). Southern Illinois University Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780809380947.
  23. 1 2 James, Caryn (17 October 1988). "Mira Nair Combines Cultures to Create a Film". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  24. 1 2 3 4 Blenski, Simon; Debreyne, Adrien Maurice; Hegewisch, Martha Eugenia; Trivedi, Avani Anant (2005). "Mira Nair". Voices from the Gaps. hdl:11299/166286.
  25. ↑ Hughes, Mike (12 July 1998). "Aids movie is full of emotion; Compassionate tale: Glenne Headly and Naveen Andrews co-star in 'My Own Country". Lansing State Journal. p. 1E. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tusing, David (5 November 2025). "Six essential films by Mira Nair, Zohran Mamdani's Oscar-nominated mother". The National. Archived from the original on 7 November 2025. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  27. ↑ Crossette, Barabara (23 December 1990). "Homeless and Hungry Youths of India". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 October 2008.
  28. ↑ Deepika, Bahri (1996). Between the Lines: South Asian and Postcoloniality (1st ed.). Temple University Press Philadelphia. pp. 191–193.
  29. ↑ Whitney, Anna (10 September 2001). "Indian director is first woman to win Golden Lion". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 15 May 2022. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  30. ↑ Zee, Michaela (25 June 2025). "Zohran Mamdani Loves Movies: NYC's Presumptive Democratic Mayoral Pick Told Mom Mira Nair to Turn Down 'Harry Potter,' Rapped for a Disney Film and More". Variety. Retrieved 25 June 2025.
  31. ↑ "Bollywood to honour Mira Nair with 'Pride of India' award". Hindustan Times. Press Trust of India (PTI). 23 April 2007. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  32. ↑ "Mira Nair, Asha Parekh honoured at Bollywood awards in New York". Malaysia Sun. Indo-Asian News Service (IANS). 28 May 2007. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2009.
  33. ↑ Block, Melissa (22 October 2009). "Mira Nair, Discovering A Very Modern 'Amelia'". NPR. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  34. ↑ " 'Amelia' Reviews, Pictures." Rotten Tomatoes, IGN Entertainment.
  35. ↑ " 'Amelia' (2009): Reviews." Metacritic.
  36. ↑ "Amelia." Box Office Mojo, 10 January 2010.
  37. ↑ Kaplan, Fred (19 April 2013). "Crossing Dangerous Borders". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  38. ↑ "Indian director Mira Nair on 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'". Weekend Review. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  39. ↑ "The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) – International". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 10 December 2015.
  40. ↑ Robinson, Joanna (16 August 2015). "Why Lupita Nyong'o, Not the Superheroes, Represents the Future of Disney". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 14 September 2021.
  41. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (9 January 2015). "David Oyelowo & Lupita Nyong'o In Talks To Star In 'Queen Of Katwe' For Disney". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  42. ↑ "Queen of Katwe (2016)". Box Office Moj.
  43. ↑ "The Films of Mira Nair: Diaspora Vérité". Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  44. ↑ Young, Deborah (5 September 2002). "Review: '11'09"01 September 11'". variety.com. Archived from the original on 8 July 2017. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  45. ↑ Bamzai, Kaveree (22 September 2016). "If we don't tell our stories no one else will: Mira Nair". DailyO. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  46. ↑ Sisson, Patrick (9 April 2015). "TAMassociati's Humanitarian Architecture". Redshift EN. Autodesk. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  47. ↑ "mira Nair". Amakul International Film Festival. 12 March 2016. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  48. ↑ ″Monsoon Wedding Kicks Off Developmental Lab Today″, Playbill, 30 May 2016
  49. ↑ "Monsoon Wedding". berkeleyrep.org. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  50. ↑ "Global Programs". Columbia University School of the Arts. Columbia University. Archived from the original on 24 June 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
  51. ↑ Krishnankutty, Pia (10 July 2020). "Mira Nair to adapt New York Times story 'The Jungle Prince of Delhi' into Amazon series". ThePrint. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  52. ↑ "Mira Nair to adapt New York Times article The Jungle Prince of Delhi into a series". The Indian Express. 10 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  53. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (24 March 2021). "'National Treasure' TV Series With Latina Lead Greenlighted By Disney+; Mira Nair To Direct". Deadline. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  54. ↑ Singh, Yoshita. "Mira Nair's son wins election to New York State assembly". Rediff.com. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  55. ↑ "Mira Nair, Mahmood Mamdani & Zohran: A Global Family of Art, Politics and Leadership". The Brew News. 12 November 2025. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
  56. ↑ "Election day live updates: Zohran Mamdani wins New York mayoral race". BBC News. 5 November 2025. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  57. ↑ "Film director Mira Nair boycotting Haifa festival". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 21 July 2013.
  58. ↑ "Mira Nair turns down invite to Israel film festival". The Times of India. Press Trust of India (PTI). 23 July 2013.
  59. ↑ Sherwood, Harriet (21 July 2013). "Mira Nair boycotts Haifa film festival". The Guardian.
  60. ↑ "Mira Nair boycotts Israel Film Festival in Palestine's support". The Express Tribune. 20 July 2013.
  61. 1 2 "L.A. Film Critics Vote Lahti, Hanks, 'Dorrit' Winners". Los Angeles Times. 12 December 1988. Archived from the original on 1 June 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  62. ↑ Jamkhandikar, Shilpa (25 January 2012). "Dharmendra, Shabana Azmi, Mira Nair to get Padma Bhushan". Reuters. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
  63. ↑ "Padma Awards Announced". Press Information Bureau. 27 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
  64. ↑ Schuldt, Clay (10 March 2018). "Film Society to show 'Salaam Bombay'". nujournal.com. Archived from the original on 10 March 2018. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  65. ↑ "Awards 1988: All Awards". festival-cannes.fr. Archived from the original on 28 December 2014.
  66. ↑ Taraporevala, Sooni; Mira Nair (1989). Salaam Bombay!. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-012724-0.
  67. ↑ "National Board of Review of Motion Pictures :: Awards". NBRMP. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  68. ↑ "Awards of the Montreal World Film Festival". FFM Montreal. Archived from the original on 26 September 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  69. ↑ Sloan, Jane (2007). Reel Women. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5738-4.
  70. 1 2 "Venice Film Festival 2001". MUBI. Archived from the original on 12 December 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  71. ↑ "History of the Harvard Arts Medal". Harvard University Office for the Arts. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  72. ↑ "Ретроспекция Любовта е Лудост | IFF "Love Is Folly"" (in Bulgarian). 4 March 2018. Archived from the original on 10 October 2022.
  73. ↑ "43rd IFFI closes with Meera Nair's 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'". pib.nic.in.
  74. ↑ "The 61st Academy Awards (1989) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 29 March 1989. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  75. ↑ "Film in 1990". British Academy Film Awards. 1990. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  76. ↑ Dawtrey, Adam (28 January 2002). "BAFTA noms unveiled". Variety. Archived from the original on 26 August 2025. Retrieved 7 November 2025.
  77. ↑ "17th Annual Gotham Awards Unveil Nominees for Year's Best Independent Films". PRWeb. 22 October 2007. Archived from the original on 10 October 2022.
  78. ↑ "BBC - Cast announced for BBC One's A Suitable Boy, the first screen adaptation of Vikram Seth's classic novel - Media Centre". BBC.

Further reading