In Venice for the festival screening of Vanity Fair, Mira Nair has revealed details of her next project, an adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Namesake.
The novel tells the story of a Calcutta family who leave India to come to Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the US in the 1960s. There, they face a tough battle to assimilate.
Headlining a cast which will include both Indian and US actors, is Bollywood star Rani Mukherjee (pictured), "India's sweetheart," whose credits include Hum Tum and Yuva.
Shooting is due to begin in December in Calcutta. The production will then move to New York. Focus (which handled international distribution on Vanity Fair) is in talks to board the project.
"I think Hollywood is just waking up to the immense potential not just of Indian cinema but of the market in India," Nair commented. She recently acquired the remake rights to an Indian "blockbuster" and has sold them on to an as yet undisclosed Hollywood studio. "It will be the first time there has been a reverse, when Hollywood will buy Bollywood. I'm going to remake it in an African-American context."
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