Mira Nair to produce Asian films

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><script language="javascript">doweshowbellyad=0; </script><br /><img align="left" src="/photo/603101.cms" alt="/photo/603101.cms" border="0" />MUMBAI: Mira Nair, award-winning director of <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Monsoon Wedding </span>and <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Salaam Bombay</span>, has announced the formation of a new film production company, International Bhenji Brigade (IBB).<br /><br />(Bhenji, implying ‘not-so-hip sister'', is how Ms Nair teasingly refers to her film crew). <br /><br />It is a collaboration between her own company Mirabai Films and Bala Entertainment International (BEI) Pvt Ltd, a division of the Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group (of Venky''s chicken fame).<br /><br />IBB is looking at producing three South Asian or Asian diaspora films over the next three years. Neil Prashad, vice president, operations, BEI, said that the VH group, which had diversified into pharmaceuticals, healthcare, clothing and cosmetics, was now looking at cinema. However, he resolutely refused to indicate the size of its cinema fund, speaking breezily of "several million dollars".<br /><br />According to Ms Nair, while BEI would provide the funds, Mirabai Films would help develop good scripts and provide access to her network of distribution and sales agents, technical crew, film festivals and film schools. The new company will have offices in Mumbai and New York. <br /><br />"We are not looking at clones of my films but to foster fresh, individual voices - men and women - from Asia," says Ms Nair. "I would love to produce a martial arts epic with Kalaripayattu in South India, but not direct it. Or a Tamil potboiler that Western audiences would kill for. There is so much talent in India, but Indian filmmakers lack a sense of discipline and rigour." <br /><br />Ms Nair clarified that she was interested in getting "bums on seats" globally, not specifically at a ''crossover film''. "I would like to disprove the idea that Indians cannot make films for a global audience. We''re not looking just at Indian issues, but wider issues. If the Californian audience does not find our cinema palatable, they need to be more educated about us, rather than us catering to them," she said.<br /><br />The director, who is wrapping up her film <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Vanity Fair</span>, based on the Thackeray novel, intends to add one more song to the film. "Although Vanity Fair is produced by Focus Features, a division of Universal, it is far from being a stuffy, frocky film - it''s a kind of ''Gone with the vindaloo'' story."<br /><br />"It is set in a time when the English got a lot of wealth from its colonies such as India, but the wealthy English could not achieve the status of the aristocracy. It has been shot in India and the UK and has a melange of both cultures." The film is expected to be released in September.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Ms Nair is also establishing Maisha (Swahili for zest for life), a film lab in Africa, to teach young South Asian and East Africans the craft of filmmaking with eight mentors from around the world.<br /><br /><formid=367815></formid=367815></div> </div>