Viewpoints: Three Iconic Directors: Gurinder Chadha, Deepa Mehta, and Mira Nair

The Bhenji Brigade

left to right mira nair, gurinder chadha and deepa mehta

Join us for this Viewpoints program bringing together three iconic directors of world cinema: Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), and Deepa Mehta (Water), in a conversation moderated by Aroon Shivdasani. Three filmmakers of Punjabi background, this "Bhenji Brigade" has made significant contributions to film with their fierce creative visions, and represent a larger Indian diaspora from Canada, the UK, and the United States.

The conversation will be followed by a reception in the Garden Court.

This program is presented by Asia Society and with support from Aroon Shivdasani, The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University, and Fempowerment Foundation.

Viewpoints is an annual series in which prominent, visionary figures in the creative arts are interviewed on-stage before a public audience, about their work, career, and relationship with Asia. Viewpoints has been made possible in part by the generous support of Aashish and Dinyar S. Devitre.

Speakers

Gurinder Chadha

Gurinder Chadha stands as a revered figure in the UK's film industry, boasting a remarkable career spanning over three decades. As a writer, director, and producer, she has delivered award-winning films that collectively grossed over $300 million worldwide. Her significance in British cinema is underscored by the British Film Institute's acknowledgment of her as the UK's most prolific female director today. For her remarkable contributions, Chadha has been bestowed with Honorary Doctorates from British Universities and was honored with an O.B.E. in the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honors List. Gurinder Chadha remains an indomitable force in the world of British cinema, leaving an enduring mark on the industry.

Chadha commenced her cinematic journey following a successful stint as a broadcast journalist for BBC News. Her transition into directing was marked by the 1989 documentary "I'M BRITISH BUT..." for Channel 4 and the British Film Institute. Subsequent documentary works for the BFI, BBC, and Channel 4 earned her critical acclaim and accolades. Her iconic film Bend It Like Beckham was the highest-grossing British-financed, British-distributed film ever at the UK box office (at time of release) and topped box office charts internationally. The film received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture (Musical or Comedy), a BAFTA Award nomination for Best British Film, a European Film Academy nomination for Best Film, and a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Her other hit films include Bride & Prejudice – a film that marries Jane Austen with Indian and Western musicals, the first film ever to open at #1 in the UK and India on the same day; Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, based on the international bestseller; It's A Wonderful Afterlife, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; and Viceroy's House, an epic drama on Indian Independence and Partition, starring Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Om Puri and Huma Qureshi.

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Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work is internationally renowned. Her emotionally resonating, award-winning films have played at major film festivals, and been sold and distributed around the globe. They include the Elements Trilogy of films: Fire, Earth, and the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee, Water; Bollywood/Hollywood; Heaven on Earth; her "bad ass" Beeba Boys, based on real life Indo-Canadian gangsters in Vancouver; and the epic adaptation of Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie’s three-time Booker Prize winning novel. Mehta also directed Funny Boy, which won best director at the Canadian Screen Awards. The film also picked up Best Picture and Best Supporting Performance Female at the 2021 Leo Awards.

Mehta’s television projects include directing the pilot and second episode for the Netflix Original series, Leila; The Manager and Mr. Song; the pilot episodes of Little America’s two seasons for Apple TV; as well as the episode Bear Down for Showtime’s acclaimed series Yellowjackets.

Mehta’s latest film I am Sirat, a documentary, premiered at TIFF 2023, in competition at BFI London Film Festival 2023, and is now streaming on CBC. Mehta is currently working on a feature film based on the book and script Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto, as well as the feature film Troilokya set to film in India.

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Mira Nair

Mira Nair is an Academy-Award nominated director best known for her visually dense films that pulsate with life. Her debut feature, Salaam Bombay! (1988) won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes, followed by the groundbreaking Mississippi Masala (1991), the Golden Globe & Emmy-winning Hysterical Blindness (2001) and the international hit Monsoon Wedding (2001), for which she was the first woman to win Venice Film Festival’s coveted Golden Lion. Also known for her literary craftsmanship of subcontinental fiction, Mira has filmed The Namesake (2006), The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), Vanity Fair (2004), A Suitable Boy (2020) and Queen of Katwe (2016).

At home everywhere, in 2021 she directed the TV pilot of the iconic film National Treasure. She returned to the theatre for her most recent endeavor, directing Monsoon Wedding the Musical, which opened in New York City at St Ann's Warehouse in May 2023 and is bound for Broadway.

Her next feature films will be AMRI, an experimental portrait of Amrita Sher-Gil, India’s pioneering modern artist, and BRO, a searing tale of class, conflict and revenge in contemporary India. A book on Mira Nair’s cinema will be published by Rizzoli in 2025.

An activist by nature, Nair founded Salaam Baalak Trust for street children in 1989, and the Maisha Film Lab in East Africa to train film makers on the continent in 2004. In 2012, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour.

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The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University (The Mittal Institute) was founded to further Harvard University’s engagement with South Asia. The Mittal Institute engages in interdisciplinary research to advance and deepen the understanding of critical issues in South Asia and its relationship with the world. The Mittal Institute now serves as the premier center on regional studies, cross-disciplinary research, and innovative programming, pertaining to South Asia.

Fempowerment Foundation

Fempowerment Foundation, "Empowering Women...one step at a time" is an organization founded by Kiren Srivastav and Ajay Shrivastav. Fempowerment Foundation serves as a microcosmic organization of global priorities focused on outcomes of social impact, sustainability, and environmental conservation, operationalized by the empowerment of socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Based in India, they teach marketable life-skills to women from weaker economic strata to achieve self-sufficiency.

Aroon Shivdasani

Aroon Shivdasani is the Founder and retired Executive & Artistic Director of the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC). Aroon pioneered a passionate movement to showcase, promote, give visibility, and build an awareness of performing, visual, literary, folk arts and artists from the Indian sub-continent as well as the diaspora, while simultaneously working to support important social and humanitarian causes in India and the U.S. She founded the first festivals of Indian Film (NYIFF), Indian dance (EB Dance), Diaspora Playwrights Festival, Indian Literary Festival and the first traveling Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora in the United States.

Among her numerous awards, in January 2015 Aroon was named one of the "top 20 Global Indian Women" by The Economic Times, India. In March 2018 she was honored by the Society of Foreign Consuls, New York, for her "outstanding achievements and contribution to Community Empowerment"; in July 2018 she received a Recognition Award honoring her for being "a pioneer of Indian Arts & Aesthetics in North America” by the Consul General of India, New York, in 2019 The Heritage Center presented her with an award for "being a pioneer in bringing Indian arts and culture to America", and in 2020 Dr. Bilha Fish recognized her as one of 21 Inspiring American Immigrants in her book "Invincible Women"; on June 4th, 2023 Aroon received the Minni Untermeyer Award for Excellence in the Arts.

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Viewpoints: Three Iconic Directors: Gurinder Chadha, Deepa Mehta, and Mira Nair

The Bhenji Brigade

Speakers

Gurinder Chadha

Deepa Mehta

Mira Nair

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University

Fempowerment Foundation

Aroon Shivdasani

Event Details