My son is not a firang: Mira Nair

Director says her son is a total desi despite growing up abroad.

Mira Nair left India at the age of 19 and has homes abroad in USA as well as in Uganda. Though, she herself has spent most of her youth abroad, she refuses to wish the same for her son Zohran, according to the Hindustan Times.

“He is a total desi. Completely. We are not firangs at all. He is very much us. He was born in Uganda and raised between India and America. He is at home in many places. He thinks of himself as a Ugandan and as an Indian,” said Nair.

A junior in college with one more year to go, her 21-year-old son is studying Arabic and politics. Nair said he is a very ‘chaalu’ (clever) fellow and at home they prefer to only speak Hindi. Zohran is involved in popular culture and is highly updated with current events. However, unlike his mother, he is not into making films.

When asked about if she deliberately kept Zohran away from the spotlight, Nair said that they are not ‘filmy’ people and added that her son likes to visit India often. Career wise, Nair wouldn’t want him to follow in her footsteps. She feels that her son should be given the liberty to pursue whatever he wishes to do so. Zohran is very much updated with current affairs and takes a particular interest in politics. Nair feels that her son should feel free to study what he wishes as she thinks that he is in to study all of this in order to bring  about some sort of difference.

Despite that, Nair consults him on the films she makes to gather a young audience’s perspective. For example it was Zohran who brought Kal Penn to Nair’s interest while she was casting for her movie The Namesake. Though Penn is famous for his roles in movies like Harold and Kumar, Nair had not heard of him and was glad that her son brought him to her attention.

Nair also reveals that Zohran was equally involved in the casting for The Reluctant Fundamentalist. He is also trying to get Nair active on social media. “He is the one who put me on Twitter. I knew about it but I didn’t use it,” adds the filmmaker.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, one of the most anticipated movies of this year released in Pakistan on May 24.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2013.                    

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