Mira Nair plans ‘Maisha’ in Kampala 01st Dec 2004
17.52 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh
India-born, New York-based filmmaker Mira Nair plans to begin a mentorship center in the Ugandan capital Kampala to encourage the culture of filmmaking.
Mira, who is in Goa for the 35th International Film Festival of India, said on Tuesday that plans are afoot to start a “film laboratory” for East African and South Asian filmmakers in Kampala, which she considers as one of her homes across the world.
The center will be called Maisha (Life) and will annually train eight young filmmakers/students – four from African countries and one each from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Speaking about Maisha, Mira told the reporters “It has just got funding and the venture should kick off in a year. We plan to fly in eight young filmmakers for 12 weeks of mentorship. We have such a great theatre tradition in this region, and need to build filmmaking too."
Meanwhile, the Orissa-born, Harvard-educated Nair said she is doing research and scouting for shooting locations for her next movie ‘Namesake’ which is based on Pulitzer-winner Jhumpa Lahiri’s book of the same name. The film will star Konkana Sen and Irfaan Khan .
Nair’s ‘Vanity Fair’ was the opening film of this year’s IFFI on Monday.
RSS
Mira Nair plans ‘Maisha’ in Kampala
