Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersIndependent Spirit AwardsWomen's History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Biography
  • Awards
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Mira Nair

  • Director
  • Producer
  • Actress
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Mira Nair at an event for IMDb First Credit (2016)
Official Trailer
Play trailer1:59
This Changes Everything (2018)
6 Videos
75 Photos
Accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer Mira Nair was born in India and educated at Delhi University and at Harvard. She began her film career as an actor and then turned to directing award-winning documentaries, including So Far From India and India Cabaret. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1988; it won the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival and 25 other international awards. Her next film, Mississippi Masala, an interracial love story set in the American South and Uganda, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, won three awards at the Venice Film Festival including Best Screenplay and The Audience Choice Award. Subsequent films include The Perez Family (with Marisa Tomei, Anjelica Huston, Alfred Molina and Chazz Palminteri), about an exiled Cuban family in Miami; and the sensuous Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, which she directed and co-wrote. Nair directed My Own Country based on Dr. Abraham Verghese's best-selling memoir about a young immigrant doctor dealing with the AIDS epidemic. Made in 1998, My Own Country starred Naveen Andrews, Glenne Headly, Marisa Tomei, Swoosie Kurtz, and Hal Holbrook, and was awarded the NAACP award for best fiction feature. Nair returned to the documentary form in August 1999 with The Laughing Club of India, which was awarded The Special Jury Prize in the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels 2000. In the summer of 2000, Nair shot Monsoon Wedding in 30 days, a story of a Punjabi wedding starring Naseeruddin Shah and an ensemble of Indian actors. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Monsoon Wedding also won a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and opened worldwide to tremendous critical and commercial acclaim. Nair's next feature was an HBO original film, Hysterical Blindness. Set in working class New Jersey in 1987, the film stars Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, Gena Rowlands. Thurman and Lewis play single women looking for love in all the wrong places, while Rowlands, who plays Thurman's mother, adds to her daughter's hysteria when she finds Mr. Right in Ben Gazarra. The film received great critical acclaim and the highest ratings for HBO, garnering an audience of 15 million, a Golden Globe for Uma Thurman, and 3 Emmy Awards. Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Nair joined a group of 11 renowned filmmakers, each commissioned to direct a film that was 11 minutes, 9 seconds and one frame long. Nair's film is a retelling of real events in the life of the Hamdani family in Queens, whose eldest son was missing after September 11, and was then accused by the media of being a terrorist. 11.09.01 is the true story of a mother's search for her son who did not return home on that fateful day. In May 2003, Nair helmed the Focus Features production of the Thackeray classic, Vanity Fair, a provocative period tale set in post-colonial England, in which Reese Witherspoon plays the lead, Becky Sharp. The film is scheduled to release in Fall 2004. Nair's upcoming projects include Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul for HBO, and Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist, and there are also plans to take Monsoon Wedding to Broadway. Mirabai Films is establishing an annual filmmaker's laboratory, Maisha, which will be dedicated to the support of visionary screenwriters and directors in East Africa and India. The first lab, which is only for screenwriters, will be launched in August 2005 in Kampala, Uganda.
BornOctober 15, 1957
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornOctober 15, 1957
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Unlock contact info on IMDbPro
  • Nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards
    • 34 wins & 26 nominations total

Photos75

Mira Nair in Words with Gods (2014)
Mira Nair and Shafiq Syed in Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Reese Witherspoon and Mira Nair in Vanity Fair (2004)
Julian Fellowes and Mira Nair in Vanity Fair (2004)
Mira Nair in Vanity Fair (2004)
Stuart Dryburgh and Mira Nair in The Perez Family (1995)
Mira Nair in Amelia (2009)
Richard Gere and Mira Nair in Amelia (2009)
Irrfan Khan and Mira Nair in New York, I Love You (2008)
Hilary Swank and Mira Nair in Amelia (2009)
Mira Nair in Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Mira Nair

Known for

Shafiq Syed in Salaam Bombay! (1988)
Salaam Bombay!
7.9
  • Director
  • 1988
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Monsoon Wedding
7.3
  • Director
  • 2001
Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury in Mississippi Masala (1991)
Mississippi Masala
6.7
  • Director
  • 1991
Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland, Kate Hudson, and Riz Ahmed in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
6.8
  • Director
  • 2012

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Director

  • Jordan Rodrigues, Lisette Olivera, Jake Austin Walker, Zuri Reed, and Antonio Cipriano in National Treasure: Edge of History (2022)
    National Treasure: Edge of History
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2022
  • Tanya Maniktala in A Suitable Boy (2020)
    A Suitable Boy
    • Director
    • TV Series
    • 2020
  • Nafas (2019)
    Nafas
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2019
  • David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o, and Madina Nalwanga in Queen of Katwe (2016)
    Queen of Katwe
    • Director (directed by)
    • 2016
  • A Fork, a Spoon & a Knight
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2015
  • Words with Gods (2014)
    Words with Gods
    • Director (segment God Room)
    • 2014
  • Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland, Kate Hudson, and Riz Ahmed in The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)
    The Reluctant Fundamentalist
    • Director
    • 2012
  • Richard Gere and Hilary Swank in Amelia (2009)
    Amelia
    • Director
    • 2009
  • 8 (2008)
    8
    • Director (segment How can it be?)
    • 2008
  • Ethan Hawke, Natalie Portman, Christina Ricci, Andy Garcia, John Hurt, Robin Wright, James Caan, Julie Christie, Drea de Matteo, Carlos Acosta, Orlando Bloom, Hayden Christensen, Bradley Cooper, Chris Cooper, Irrfan Khan, Shia LaBeouf, Maggie Q, Shu Qi, Anton Yelchin, Rachel Bilson, and Olivia Thirlby in New York, I Love You (2008)
    New York, I Love You
    • Director (segment Mira Nair)
    • 2008
  • Migration (2008)
    Migration
    • Director
    • Short
    • 2008
  • Kal Penn in The Namesake (2006)
    The Namesake
    • Director
    • 2006
  • Vanity Fair (2004)
    Vanity Fair
    • Director
    • 2004
  • September 11 (2002)
    September 11
    • Director (segment India)
    • 2002
  • Hysterical Blindness (2002)
    Hysterical Blindness
    • Director
    • TV Movie
    • 2002

Producer

  • Jordan Rodrigues, Lisette Olivera, Jake Austin Walker, Zuri Reed, and Antonio Cipriano in National Treasure: Edge of History (2022)
    National Treasure: Edge of History
    • executive producer
    • TV Series
    • 2022–2023
  • Tanya Maniktala in A Suitable Boy (2020)
    A Suitable Boy
    • executive producer
    • TV Series
    • 2020
  • Ayiti Mon Amour (2016)
    Ayiti Mon Amour
    • executive producer
    • 2016
  • 8 (2008)
    8
    • producer (segment How Can It Be?)
    • 2008
  • Prarambha
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2008
  • Migration (2008)
    Migration
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2008
  • Arjun Mathur in Positive (2007)
    Positive
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2007
  • Blood Brothers (2007)
    Blood Brothers
    • executive producer
    • Short
    • 2007
  • Kal Penn in The Namesake (2006)
    The Namesake
    • producer
    • 2006
  • Still, the Children Are Here (2004)
    Still, the Children Are Here
    • producer
    • 2004
  • Monsoon Wedding (2001)
    Monsoon Wedding
    • producer
    • 2001
  • My Own Country (1998)
    My Own Country
    • producer
    • TV Movie
    • 1998
  • Sarita Choudhury and Indira Varma in Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)
    Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love
    • producer
    • 1996
  • Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury in Mississippi Masala (1991)
    Mississippi Masala
    • producer (produced by)
    • 1991
  • Shafiq Syed in Salaam Bombay! (1988)
    Salaam Bombay!
    • producer (produced by)
    • 1988

Actress

  • Bollywood Calling (2001)
    Bollywood Calling
    • Mira
    • 2001
  • Monsoon Wedding (2001)
    Monsoon Wedding
    • Mrs. Mehta (voice, uncredited)
    • 2001
  • My Own Country (1998)
    My Own Country
    • Saryu Joshi
    • TV Movie
    • 1998
  • Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, and Anjelica Huston in The Perez Family (1995)
    The Perez Family
    • Woman buying flowers
    • 1995
  • Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury in Mississippi Masala (1991)
    Mississippi Masala
    • Gossip 1
    • 1991
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos6

Mira Nair's Gossipy First Credit
Interview 1:08
Mira Nair's Gossipy First Credit
Amelia
Trailer 1:54
Amelia
This Changes Everything
Trailer 1:59
This Changes Everything
This Changes Everything
Trailer 2:05
This Changes Everything
Kama Sutra
Trailer 1:51
Kama Sutra
This Changes Everything - Trailer
Trailer 2:05
This Changes Everything - Trailer

Personal details

Edit
  • Official site
    • Mirabai Films
  • Born
    • October 15, 1957
    • Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, India
  • Spouses
      Mahmood Mamdani? - present (1 child)
  • Other works
    Audio commentary for film Vanity Fair (2004)
  • Publicity listings
    • 5 Interviews
    • 4 Articles

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Was offered the job of directing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).
  • Quotes
    I want to question what the outside is and who defines it. I often find those that are considered to be on the outside extremely inspiring. They are the people who see through the double standards, like the kid in Salaam Bombay and the courtesan in Kama Sutra.
  • Trademark
      Credits are often set in an unusual typeface. End credits often feature pictograms, with the credit reel ending on a pictogram, as in Mississippi Masala and Kama Sutra.

Related news

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
  • Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • IMDb Developer
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.