In filmmaking, bravery beats competence, says director Mira Nair

While working on artist Amrita Sher-Gil’s biopic, BAFTA jury member Mira Nair talks of the importance of experimenting with different forms of filmmaking

On Mira Nair’s watchlist tonight is a 1973 Mani Kaul film, Duvidha. Locked in, in Delhi, which has been brought to its knees by the COVID pandemic, the director of A Suitable Boy and The Namesake has turned to movies of the experimental kind. As a voting member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and a part of the Indian jury, the filmmaker has been extensively watching others’ work in order to select 10 artistes from India to be mentored under BAFTA’s Breakthrough India initiative. Over a video call, she says, “The longer I live, the more I realise that creative energy is not limitless. And therefore, I try to do things that give me energy.” Things like going over the work of 30 applicants to BAFTA Breakthrough India to “narrow down original voices that can get lost in our country of many, especially in an industry like ours where it is all about who you know,” she adds.