Aids Jago is beyond commerce: Mira Nair

New York-based ‘crossover queen’ Mira Nair is in Dubai with her film Migration – one of the four in the series Aids Jago. She speaks about Aids awareness, film festivals and her latest Hollywood venture Shantaram.

How effective are film festivals like DIFF to raise AIDS awareness?
The festivals came to us. I thought we’d go straight to television or to cinema screens, but even before the films (Aids Jaago) were finished, Toronto Film Festival came to me and said they’d heard about it. They just went mad for it and gave us a world premier which was a big deal in Toronto. I underestimated (the response). The venue was packed. They had turned about 200 people away. The hall was full of activists because there’s such a dearth of images and information about HIV Aids and certainly not information that could translate across borders.

One of the main criteria was that I wanted to make non-verbal films. Those that’d cross borders without difficulty. And that’s what we did. That premier got us, without us soliciting, 30 invitations to festivals around the world.

The whole thing is about eyeballs (on the issue). What the festivals give us is a platform and a lot of global publicity. This venture is not about commerce, so anyone approaches us gets literally what they want. The Gates (Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation financed the project) are more ecstatic about it than anything else.

How difficult it was to juggle the seriousness of the message and the entertainment aspect of the cinema?
I try never to make boring cinema. I have a high barometer for boredom. The story of Migration was born out of a true story and I have always believed that truth is stranger than fiction.

I really don’t like to preach because I think it underestimates the audiences. We never felt we had to spell everything out. I hate films that feel like homework. So every time my film began to be preachy I raised the flag. The other three (directors) are great filmmakers. I wouldn’t have chosen people who flirt with boredom in their work.

Are you happy getting what you are getting out of these festivals?
Well, very much so because one (festival) is just a ripple in a very large ocean. I am happy that millions will see the film no matter how we get to them. Film festivals are one of the aspects that help us get there, but for us the essential thing is TV and (cinema) screens in India.

Here’s hoping the message will spread faster and farther than the virus it is fighting. Inshallah!

You have made movies that borrow from cultural stereotypes and yet as an individual you are very quick to dispel any misconceptions about India. Is there a conscious effort?
Thinking India simply as a very traditional society is a very frozen way of looking at India. We are so far from it. What is interesting is that while we are traditional, we are extremely elastic. I think the most extraordinary thing about India is its coexistence with anything else and I love that thing about India. It gives us flexibility and strength and that’s what I love about where I come from. I think our cinema should reflect that.

How’s your Hollywood project Shantaram coming along?
We were set to start the shoot on February 2. I have devoted literally a whole year of my life to the creation of this film and it is in very good shape. It is not fully cast, the writers’ strike in Hollywood is quite crippling in its impact in the sense that a script can not be changed in any way or improvised. It must be fully locked before you enter production.

With a film of such magnitude, costing $93 million, none of us felt good about the fact that we could go in without changing a single word. Why give ourselves that artificial pressure, so we’re waiting for the bloody strike to be resolved and we will get going. Everyone from Johnny Depp to Warner Brothers and myself are deeply committed to the film. We expect to start in the fall of 2008.

Bearing in mind the cultural gap between resident and non-resident Indians is narrowing fast, what is the future of crossover cinema?
I’m not a subscriber to the label of crossover cinema. I completely and genuinely believe in good cinema or not-so-good cinema. The point is that you have to tell a story brilliantly. For me it is the humanity, originality and universality of the story that intrigues me. I really do think that crossover cinema is the kind of label journalists have to put on some kind of cinema, but to me it is about telling a story in a brilliant way.

Mira Nair’s selected directorial work
Shantaram: pre-production
Migration: 2007
The Namesake: 2006
Monsoon Wedding: 2001
Kama Sutra - A Tale of Love: 1996
Mississippi Masala: 1991
Salam Bombay: 1998
(Source: The Internet Movie Database)

Thursday’s main attraction
Rhythm & Reels: 90 Millas, Gloria Estefan live in concert (7pm at Amphitheatre, Media city)