Mira Nair

Directing

Mira Nair

Born

1957-10-15 (69)

Place of birth

Rourkela, Orissa, India

Known for

Directing

Credits

59 titles

Mira Nair (born 15 October 1957) is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films. She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature, Salaam Bombay! (1988), won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Nair used the proceeds to establish an organisation for street children, called the Salaam Baalak Trust in India. She often works with longtime creative collaborator, screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala, whom she met at Harvard. Nair has won a number of awards, including a National Film Award and various international film fest…

Known for

Film credits

2010s · 8 titles

This Changes Everything poster
6.2

An investigative look and analysis of gender disparity in Hollywood, featuring accounts from well-known actors, executives and artists in the Industry.

This Changes Everything

2019

The 4%: Film's Gender Problem poster
3.3

Explores the hot-button issues around the striking gender gap in Hollywood. Both women and men in the entertainment industry share first-person insights, questions, and anecdotes about the place of women in Hollywood.

The 4%: Film's Gender Problem

2016

Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life poster
5.2

An account of the life and work of legendary cinematographer and director Carlo Di Palma (1925-2004) and an emotional journey through the great moments of cinema, from Italian neorealism to the masterpieces of Woody Allen.

Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life

2017

Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded poster
NR

A sequel to the 1988 award winning documentary, "Slaying the Dragon," this film looks at the past 25 years of representation of Asian and Asian American women in U.S. visual media -- from blockbuster films and network television to Asian American cinema and YouTube -- to explore what's changed, what's been recycled, and what we can hope for in the future.

Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded

2011

Femme poster
7.0

A documentary featuring interviews with 100 influential women from around the world.

Femme

2013

Solace in the Dark poster
NR

A retrospective documentary on 9/11 in connection with the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.

Solace in the Dark

2011

Les réalisatrices contemporaines:  l'état des choses poster
NR

Right at the heart of the debates on the discrimination of women in the film industry, this documentary raises questions, while offering a voice to women and their cinema. Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Mira Nair, Margarethe Von Trotta, Ulrike Ottinger, Micheline Lanctot, Rakshnan Bani-Etemad, María Novaro but also the names of the less visible directors of the general public. Joining the filmmakers are the voices and comments of producers, film specialists and archivists through whom our images are meticulously preserved.

Les réalisatrices contemporaines: l'état des choses

2016

Restoring the Apu Trilogy poster
8.0

In 1993, the original negatives of Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy were burned in a massive nitrate fire at a laboratory in London. Even though there were no technologies available at the time capable of fully restoring such badly damaged film elements, the Academy Film Archive held on to them. And now times have changed.

Restoring the Apu Trilogy

2015

2000s · 3 titles

1990s · 3 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Queen of Katwe poster
7.2

A young girl overcomes her disadvantaged upbringing in the slums of Uganda to become a Chess master.

Queen of Katwe

2016

New York, I Love You poster
6.0

New York, I Love You delves into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Journey from the Diamond District in the heart of Manhattan, through Chinatown and the Upper East Side, towards the Village, into Tribeca, and Brooklyn as lovers of all ages try to find romance in the Big Apple.

New York, I Love You

2008

Vanity Fair poster
5.8

In early 19th century England, orphaned Becky Sharp defies her poverty-stricken background and ascends the social ladder alongside her best friend.

Vanity Fair

2004

Monsoon Wedding poster
6.8

A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.

Monsoon Wedding

2001

Monsoon Wedding poster
6.8

A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.

Monsoon Wedding

2001

Mississippi Masala poster
6.4

Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their Uganda home, twentysomething Mina finds herself co-operating a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. Her passionate romance with charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region's Indian and African-American communities.

Mississippi Masala

1991

Mississippi Masala poster
6.4

Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their Uganda home, twentysomething Mina finds herself co-operating a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. Her passionate romance with charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region's Indian and African-American communities.

Mississippi Masala

1991

The Reluctant Fundamentalist poster
6.6

In New York, a Pakistani native finds that his American Dream has collapsed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

2013

The Namesake poster
6.8

The American-born son of Indian immigrants strives to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.

The Namesake

2007

The Namesake poster
6.8

The American-born son of Indian immigrants strives to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.

The Namesake

2007

The Perez Family poster
6.1

In the midst of the Mariel boat lift -- a hurried exodus of refugees from Cuba going to America -- an immigration clerk accidentally presumes that dissident Juan Raul Perez and Dorita Evita Perez are married. United by their last name and a mutual resolve to emigrate, Dorita and Juan agree to play along. But it gets complicated when the two begin falling for each other just as Juan reunites with his wife, Carmela, whom he hasn't seen in decades.

The Perez Family

1995

Amelia poster
5.7

A look at the life of legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart, who disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to make a flight around the world.

Amelia

2009

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love poster
5.7

Tara and Maya are inseparable, with the same tastes, habits, and hobbies. Years later, the two have matured but have maintained their friendship. Tara marries local prince Raj Singh, who succeeds the throne as the sole heir. After the marriage, Raj seeks another female to satisfy his sexual desires, with his sights settling on Maya, putting a perhaps unforgivable strain on a longtime friendship.

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

1997

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love poster
5.7

Tara and Maya are inseparable, with the same tastes, habits, and hobbies. Years later, the two have matured but have maintained their friendship. Tara marries local prince Raj Singh, who succeeds the throne as the sole heir. After the marriage, Raj seeks another female to satisfy his sexual desires, with his sights settling on Maya, putting a perhaps unforgivable strain on a longtime friendship.

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

1997

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love poster
5.7

Tara and Maya are inseparable, with the same tastes, habits, and hobbies. Years later, the two have matured but have maintained their friendship. Tara marries local prince Raj Singh, who succeeds the throne as the sole heir. After the marriage, Raj seeks another female to satisfy his sexual desires, with his sights settling on Maya, putting a perhaps unforgivable strain on a longtime friendship.

Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love

1997

Hysterical Blindness poster
6.1

Two friends lament their unhappy single lives while searching for Mr. Right in 1980s New Jersey.

Hysterical Blindness

2002

September 11 poster
6.4

Eleven directors from eleven countries each contribute an eleven-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001: A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what's happened; city kids in Burkina Faso think they've spotted Osama bin Laden; a deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who left that morning for work at the World Trade Center; a Chilean remembers Allende; events recall other deaths; a mother endures more than her son's death. Tones vary, as do the locales. Most concern coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.

September 11

2002

Words with Gods poster
5.7

The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.

Words with Gods

2014

Salaam Bombay! poster
7.3

When a revengeful Krishna destroys his brother's motorbike, his mother asks him to return home only when he earns INR 500 to repair it. In a turn of events, he finds himself in a Bombay slum.

Salaam Bombay!

1988

Salaam Bombay! poster
7.3

When a revengeful Krishna destroys his brother's motorbike, his mother asks him to return home only when he earns INR 500 to repair it. In a turn of events, he finds himself in a Bombay slum.

Salaam Bombay!

1988

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Amri

—

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Amri

—

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Amri

—

So Far from India poster
6.2

Two years after his arranged marriage and emigration to the United States, a young husband returns to India to reunite with his wife, meet his infant son, and visit his family and in-laws before going back to New York City.

So Far from India

1983

So Far from India poster
6.2

Two years after his arranged marriage and emigration to the United States, a young husband returns to India to reunite with his wife, meet his infant son, and visit his family and in-laws before going back to New York City.

So Far from India

1983

India Cabaret poster
6.5

An exploration of the 'respectable' and 'immoral' stereotypes of women in Indian society told from the point of view of two striptease dancers in a Bombay cabaret.

India Cabaret

1985

My Own Country poster
4.5

In 1985, East Indian disease specialist Abraham Verghese settles in Johnson City, TN, where his compassion and nonjudgmental treatment brings a sense of comfort to those living with AIDS.

My Own Country

1998

My Own Country poster
4.5

In 1985, East Indian disease specialist Abraham Verghese settles in Johnson City, TN, where his compassion and nonjudgmental treatment brings a sense of comfort to those living with AIDS.

My Own Country

1998

8 poster
5.4

8 shorts centered around 8 themes directed by 8 famous film directors involved and sharing their opinion on progress, on the set-backs and the challenges our planet faces today.

8

2008

8 poster
5.4

8 shorts centered around 8 themes directed by 8 famous film directors involved and sharing their opinion on progress, on the set-backs and the challenges our planet faces today.

8

2008

How Can It Be poster
NR

The story of Zainab and Arif, who live their son, Munna, in Brooklyn. Zainab makes the complicated decision to leave her protected life and follow her heart. One of eight shorts commissioned by the United Nations on themes concerning global society.

How Can It Be

2008

11’09”01—September 11: India poster
7.0

It is September 11, 2001, and a young man goes missing in New York. Because of his eastern name and his Islamic religion, he is suspected of being involved in the World Trade Center attack. The FBI inquire about him. The neighbors of his family show their disapproval. His family hold out hope that he will be found and exonerated. (Originally appeared as a segment of the omnibus film 11’09”01—September 11, but later presented as a separate short film.)

11’09”01—September 11: India

2002

Migration poster
5.7

One of a four-film series on the AIDS epidemic in India, this film examines the virus as Indian society's great class leveler, following its transmission through interweaving stories that link urban and rural India.

Migration

2008

A Fork, a Spoon & a Knight poster
NR

An inspiring creative documentary that follows the story of one of Uganda's unsung heroes - Robert Katende. Popularly known as 'Coach Robert', he was able to transform a little unknown slum in the outskirts of Kampala, into an internationally recognized army of Chess Champions.

A Fork, a Spoon & a Knight

2015

A Fork, a Spoon & a Knight poster
NR

An inspiring creative documentary that follows the story of one of Uganda's unsung heroes - Robert Katende. Popularly known as 'Coach Robert', he was able to transform a little unknown slum in the outskirts of Kampala, into an internationally recognized army of Chess Champions.

A Fork, a Spoon & a Knight

2015

The Laughing Club of India poster
8.5

Portrait of the first laughing club in India, its founding by a doctor who believes that laughter is the best medicine, his outreach to schools, interviews with club members, scenes of outdoor sessions, and shots of billboards and street scenes in contemporary Mumbai. Club members gather, stretch, and start to laugh. Founder Dr. Madan Kararia talks of the club's history and the growth of laughing clubs across the country. Among those interviewed, there's a stockbroker, three bawdy women, a musician, a widow laughing to cope with grief, and two old men - friends since school days who meet daily to laugh. No form, no fuss: happiness equals health.

The Laughing Club of India

2001

The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat poster
7.0

The story is inspired by the assassination of Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party.

The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat

1993

The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat poster
7.0

The story is inspired by the assassination of Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party.

The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat

1993

Jama Masjid Street Journal poster
10.0

Directed by Mira Nair, this documentary records street life in the traditional Muslim community surrounding the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi. Filmed as an observational portrait, it focuses on everyday activities and the responses of residents to the filmmaker’s presence.

Jama Masjid Street Journal

1979