‘If We Don’t Tell Our Stories, No One Else Will’

Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair, known for classics such as Salaam Bombay (1988) and Monsoon Wedding (2001), is back with a BBC One television mini-series, A Suitable Boy, now streaming on Netflix. In an interview with Giridhar Jha, the New York-based filmmaker talks about her latest work, career and more. Excerpts:

How did A Suitable Boy with BBC happen?

I have loved The Suitable Boy since it was written in 1993. In 2017, when I heard that BBC was making it, I immediately called them up and said I wanted to direct it. I really wanted to because I had loved this (Vikram Seth) novel for a long time. The first draft of eight chapters had already been written by then.

It is a 1,350-page novel. Was it difficult to make a six-hour-long mini-series out of it?

Like I said, the first eight hours’ structure had already happened through Andrew Davies (screenwriter) and Vikram Seth before I came. When I got involved, we had to take it down further to six hours. The country has just attained freedom and is finding her way and voice. The first democratic elections are about to be held. Lata Mehra (played by Tanya Maniktala) is also on her journey, finding her voice. That type of paralleling is what I wanted to do. As we know, the politics is very similar to what we are seeing today, which is shockingly acc­urate to what was happening at that time as well. We are now seeing the seeds that were planted then in so many ways, as well as not seeing what we had then—a great, beautiful and still powerful syncretism between Hindu and Muslim culture and music, and language and poetry, and friendship. That is the world that is just being destroyed in front of our eyes now.  I was prepared to make it.

It was Vikram Seth’s baby as a novelist but as a filmmaker, it became your baby. Didn’t creative differences crop up between the two of you during discussions over what to retain and what to leave out?

I do not think of it as anything that is conflictual. We were all pretty clear about that in an adaptation of this nature, you have to kill your darlings and make choices. And it was rearranging the balance between the wider world of India’s politics at that time and Lata’s path and Mann Kapoor’s (played by Ishaan Khattar) path. That was the emphasis for us. And that required a recalibration to tell the story of Mahesh Kapoor (Ram Kapoor) and Nawab (Aamir Bashir), who try to do justice to the Muslims who chose not to go to Pakistan. That was more important.

From Vanity Fair (1994) and The Namesake (2006) to The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) and A Suitable Boy, you have shown a penchant for classics. As a filmmaker, is it easier to make movies on such books?

I would not say it is difficult or easier for me. I would say it is propelled by an instinctual love for that particular book. But making original screenplay like Monsoon Wedding and Queen of Katwe (2016) is, in the final analysis, no less different in the craft of making a film. Of course, having a book is such a rich treasure, especially one like A Suitable Boy because you can get anything out of it.

How has been your association with Tabu over the years? You worked with her in The Namesake and now, she plays an interesting character in A Suitable Boy.  

Tabu is just this extraordinary talent. She is like a movie star of another kind of another era, because of the sort of mystery she has in her. It is a really free way of working that was always extraordinary with Tabu. It has always been like that.

And the young crop of actors who are in A Suitable Boy?

The young actors are so amazing. Ishaan Khattar just captured Maan. He is that adora­ble bad boy and he is such a brilliant actor. And the same but in a different way is the dew-drop Tania Maniktala. She is just extraordinarily of that era and so much as a modern girl inside her. I loved working with so many good actors—legends and complete unknowns. Even Danesh Razvi, who plays Kabir Durrani, is really from that time almost, in a way. The same goes for the 110 actors in A Suitable Boy. Manoj Pahwa who plays Raja of Marh is one of the finest actors of our generations. He is a seriously, legendary actor. It was a real joy to work with them.

You are a pioneering film-maker from India who broke the so-called glass ceiling and made it to Hollywood in the 1980s. How difficult was your journey before Salaam Bombay?   

It was a different time than it is now, thank god, in the sense that we were really foreign to them at that time. When we were nominated for the Oscars for Salaam Bombay, they did not know how to say the word India on the stage. As for me, it was never to make it here (Hollywood) to prove it to them. It was always for me to build who we are and tell our stories our way. I always say if we don’t tell our stories, no one else will. When I made Mississippi Masala (1991) on whatever I saw around me—the brown between the black and the white in these communities. I had never seen a story about it on screen. Today, people have finally woken up. It is black lives matter, brown life matters, every life matters. Kamala Harris is like the child of Mississippi Masala. So I always believed in that, even though it might have been lonely and tough sometimes. I always believed that you don’t have to join the pack to make another Hollywood romantic comedy but to make a Mississippi Masala or a Monsoon Wedding (2001), our own stories with our rhythm, of course.

Indian cinema has always been looked down upon in the West as a song-and-dance routine because of the usual Bollywood fare. Has that perception changed now?

I don’t think the situation has changed in that sense. I think they are just waking up to the fact that there is a real muscularity in Indian cinema that is emerging on streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Hollywood is waking up to the box office but the foundation has not changed yet.

In 2001, Aamir Khan’s Lagaan was named the official entry in the best foreign film category and made it to the final five. Still, many people felt Monsoon Wedding would have been a better choice…

You bet it should have! We would have come home with an Oscar (laughs). Lagaan is a terrific movie and I am glad it made it to the final nominations. I think in the case of best foreign films it is always commercial politics in India as to what is chosen. But only one is allowed. That prevented Monsoon Wedding from being chosen. I think the right film from India should be submitted to have a chance. Monsoon Wedding was a big hit everyone was already aware of it. That is half the battle.

Recently, an old picture of yours with Shashi Tharoor from a play was doing the rounds on the internet. Don’t you ever get tempted to cast yourself in a role in your movie? Have we lost a good actress to a good director forever?

I played a little part in Mississippi Masala but I love to direct. Yes, you have lost a great actress, my dear, to the director.