Mira Nairs
Queen of Katwe
Mira Nair jumped at the chance of directing Queen of Katwe, starring Oscar-winner Lupita Nyongo and David Oyelowo, as it gave her an opportunity to make a movie about her home in Uganda, and show a different side of the African continent.
Nair says she first came to know about chess genius Phiona Mutesis story from Tendo Nagenda, the executive vice president of production at Disney.
A Ugandan, Nagenda visited Nair at her home in Kampala and, over chai and samosas, asked her whether she was interested in directing it.
He gave me a half page article about Phionna, who was an 11-year-old, lived 15 minutes away from my house. She was off to a Russian chess championship and was completely illiterate. I was immediately interested, Nair said in an interview over telephone from New York.
But more than anything, I wanted to make a film about my home and about the streets where I live. I wanted to do that for a long time, since Mississippi Masala, said Nair, who is married to Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani.
The director says she has not tried to sugarcoat anything, as she wanted to be honest to Phionas story.
It not just brings a positive image of the African continent, but is also something that is an honest and truthful portrait of ordinary people. It is a purely African story and is told without any sugarcoating. Disney respected my vocabulary and sensibility as a filmmaker, she said.
The director met Nyongo, a huge Hollywood star now, when the actress worked as her assistant on The Namesake.
Did you know Lupita was my assistant on Namesake? She is like a daughter to me. And then she became a huge star. She is a great actor and also from the continent, and so is David. He is a Nigerian. It is an extraordinary time where we can make a major Hollywood movie with two Hollywood stars and tell the story truthfully, she noted.
Nair says Nyongo, who plays Phionas mother, Harriet Nakku, agreed to do the film within five hours, and Oyelowo, in the role of Phionas teacher Robert Katende, was similarly moved.
I was thinking about Lupita while writing Harriets character....The remarkable thing about Harriet is her courage and dignity, and thats how I think of Lupita. She has this massive core strength and dignity. In Davids case, I have chased his work for many years. He is an amazing actor and looks uncannily like Robert, Nair said.
Nair says before taking up the story, she wanted to meet Phiona, her mother and her teacher.
I met Phiona in New York, my other home, and we got along famously. The screenplay was born out of research, and then I invited screenwriter William Wheeler. The book came out during the course of making this movie, and we used it as a reference.
For Nair, the real beauty of the story is the support that Phiona received from her teacher and mother, and thats what she wanted to depict in her movie.
I have always been attracted to such stories. I am attracted to those who are considered marginal to any society. In their lives, I find stories of survival, resilience and also no self-pity.
During the course of making the movie, Nair and Nakku bonded well, and the filmmaker is happy that she got a chance to plant Nakkus garden.
It was one of the things that helped us bond. There are 80 plants in Harriets garden which came from my garden. Someone has given her a smartphone, and, every time a flower blooms, she sends me a picture. So even though she does not speak English, we have this communication and thats what matters. A flower must bloom, Nair said.
Nair, 58, known for her movies like Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is happy with the way the film has touched people.
The response is very interactive from the audience. It is a very funny film. I feel it is important to humanise and lift the veil of otherness, she said.
Source: PTI
