Mira Nair is a prominent face in the Indian film industry. Being a successful Indian film director, actor and producer she has bagged a number of prestigious awards. Her production company is known as Mirabai Films. She marked her presence in the film arena with her debut movie Salaam Bombay which was highly appreciated by the critics and earned her the Golden Camera Award at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. She also used the funds generated from the movie in a noble cause of establishing an organization for street children, known as the Salaam Baalak Trust, in India. At times, she also works with Sooni Taraporevala, long time creative collaborator screenwriter, whom she had met at Harvard.

Career of Mira Nair
Mira Nair started her film career by directing four television documentaries among which India Cabaret was one that portrayed the lives of Bombay nightclub strippers. The documentary got huge acclamations and in 1986 at American Film Festival won the Blue Ribbon award. Salaam Bombay was her first feature film, made in 1988, in which screenplay was done by Sooni Taraporevala. The movie is still regarded as a groundbreaking classic and inspires a number of film students. In the year 1991, Mississippi Masala released starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury which sketches the life of a family of displaced Ugandan-Indians, dwelling in Mississippi. She also made a film adaptation of the book `the Perez Family` in the year 1995. Mira Nair`s Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love has a backdrop of 16th century. The Namesake is another film adaptation of Mira Nair from the novel of Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri which was released in 2007. Other works of Mira Nair include My Own Country (1998), Monsoon Wedding (2001), Vanity Fair (2004), New York, I Love You, Amelia (2009), the Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012) and many more. She also began her big budget adaptation of the novel Shantaram, but unfortunately it was shelved in the year 2009. In the year 2004, Mira Nair also established Maisha Film Lab to aid East Africans and South Asians in the learning of film making. Mira Nair was also honoured with the India Abroad Person of the Year in 2007 and Padma Bhushan by President of India, Pratibha Patil in the year 2012.

Personal Life of Mira Nair
Mira Nair was born in Rourkela of Orissa state on 15 October 1957. She pursued her education from Miranda House of Delhi University and Harvard University. Presently she dwells in New York City near Columbia University and works as an adjunct professor in the Film Division of the School of Arts. Earlier, Mira Nair was married to photographer Mitch Epstein. She met her second husband, Professor Mahmood Mamdani, in Uganda in the year 1988, during her research for the film Mississippi Masala. Currently he is also working as a teaching faculty in the same institution where Mira Nairs works. Mira Nair is an ardent lover of yoga and while film making starts the day with a yoga session along with her cast and crew. Mira Nair is also a well known critic of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. She has a son named Zohran.

In July 2013 Nair was invited to the Haifa International Film Festival to grace the occasion as a guest of honour for protesting the policies of Israel towards Palestine which she had declined. She also stated that she despise the religious barrier and preferences. PACBI greatly appreciated her decision stating that it shows Mira Nair`s struggle against colonialism and apartheid.

Filmography of Mira Nair