Filmmaker Mira Nair talks about her new film, 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' - - India News Times

Noted filmmaker Mira Nair discussed her upcoming film 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist' at a news conference here on Wednesday. The news conference was organised on the occasion of Pravasi Film Festival ahead of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2010 slated for today. This is the first time dedicated to NRI (Non resident Indians) and PIO (Person of Indian Origin) filmmakers, including Indian actors living abroad. The festival kicked off with a family drama, Life Goes On, by London-based filmmaker Sangeeta Dutta (PhD in History of Cinema). Tracing the journey of an Indian doctor bringing up three daughters single-handedly in the UK, the film stars Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan, who were present for a post-screening discussion. The other screening scheduled on the inaugural day was a 25-minute documentary by Trinidad and Tobago-based filmmaker Patricia Mohammed, titled Coolie, Pink and Green. The film is a portrait of Indians who migrated to the Caribbean years ago and blended with the local culture. Nair said, "My next film is called 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist', which is based on the novel by Mohsin Hamid, a Pakistani writer living in Lahore and it' so often I've seen so many films post 9/11 about the war in Iraq, in Afghanistan about this part of the world; terrorism but it's always seen from western point of view. It almost never from our point of view and for me my next seeks to look at that but from this part of the world from Pakistan... from how America can be reexamined you know we always used to think that was the dream that was the promise but to look at what is happening in the world today in a different way." On being asked how she saw the Indian market, Nair replied, "For me it's very important to have an Indian audience. I'm rooted here in many ways. My films may be very worldly but they are after all human stories. So for me audience here is vital."