Quotes by Mira Nair

About Mira Nair:

Mira Nair is an Indian filmmaker and actress based in New York. Her production company, Mirabai Films, specializes in films for international audiences that act as "native informers" on Indian society, whether in the economic, social or cultural spheres. Among her best known films are Mississippi Masala, The Namesake, the Golden Lion-winning Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay!, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Every film is a political act; it's how you see the world.

Mira Nair

Americans are not used to being bombed in their beds, but if you come from anywhere outside America, it's not highly unusual.

Mira Nair

My films, no one else will do.

Mira Nair

Never take no for answer, and try to make films that turn you on.

Mira Nair

Post 9/11, so much has changed in New York that it does not give you that homely feeling which it did before.

Mira Nair

You have to want to be in the company of those you're making films about.

Mira Nair

I've loved 'Vanity Fair' since I was 16 years old. You know, we're all colonial hangovers in India, steeped in English literature. It is one of these novels that I read under the covers at my convent boarding school in Simla.

Mira Nair

I've been able to look at the world differently from three continents practically. I've always lived between India and the U.S. When I married Mahmood I became a daughter-in-law of Africa. That really changed my worldview. I can see it from so many p...

Mira Nair

Once 9/11 happened, people who looked like me and whose children looked like us and whose husbands looked of a community, really were made to feel quite the other, and I thought that was impossible in a city like New York but I myself was witness to ...

Mira Nair

What's nice about what we have is when you enter the set, the world of film, it becomes this real cocoon, very different from all the publicity. That's the fun part.

Mira Nair

Truth is much stranger than fiction and, often, much more powerful.

Mira Nair

Creative freedom is an imperative for me, but it doesn't really exist in a Hollywood game.

Mira Nair

Marriage of attraction is a gamble anyway, so you might as well marry into a family that is similar to your own, and make that much less of an adjustment. But the 'love marriage', as it is called, is equally common in India now. But it would be inter...

Mira Nair

We have three generations at home, including my father-in-law. I keep a very low profile, and a lot of things I do are very much with the family in mind. I have actually made films with the family around me.

Mira Nair

There's nothing universal about Indian families except that the family itself is deeply important across the country. It's sort of the fabric and anchor of our country.

Mira Nair

My family is almost exactly like the one in 'Monsoon Wedding'. We are very open, fairly liberal, loud people.

Mira Nair

We have to realize only in communication, in real knowledge, in real reaching out, can there be an understanding that there's humanity everywhere, and that's what I'm trying to do.

Mira Nair

I am at home in many cultures. I live actively in three continents and I've done that for most of my life, so I just make films as I see the world, and that happens to speak to people. I do things that I want to do.

Mira Nair

You know, the sad thing of post-9/11, which was of course horrific, was that the city in which I felt completely at home for two decades, suddenly people like us - brown people - were looked at as the 'Others.'

Mira Nair

New York City is home to so many people from so many places and the uniqueness of it is that you never feel a foreigner. English is almost hardly ever heard in the subway. In fact, it's weird.

Mira Nair

I think films have to reach people and really grab them. That's what I hope to do when I make a film - to get under your skin and really make you think about something, and have a transporting time that takes you somewhere.

Mira Nair

Author Bio

  • NameMira Nair
  • DescriptionIndian film director
  • BornOctober 15, 1957
  • CountryIndia
  • ProfessionActor; Film Director; Film Producer
  • AwardsPadma Bhushan