Mira Nair (born October 15, 1957, Rourkela,Orissa [now Odisha], India) is an Indian-born director known for her documentaries and feature films dealing with controversial subject matter.

Documentaries

Nair entered theUniversity of Delhi in 1975. She left the following year to study atHarvard University inCambridge,Massachusetts, where she developed an interest indocumentary filmmaking. For her thesis insociology, she produced her first documentary,Jama Masjid Street Journal (1979), a record of a traditionalMuslimcommunity. Nair then created a series of gritty and realistic documentaries that examineIndia’s traditions andculture, includingChildren of a Desired Sex (1987), which examines the country’spatriarchal society and its effects on unborn female children, andIndia Cabaret (1985), a portrait of two aging striptease dancers.

Feature films

In the late 1980s Nair turned her attention to feature films. She produced, directed, and cowrote the acclaimedfilmSalaam Bombay! (1988; “Salute Bombay!”), the story of an 11-year-old boy living on the streets of Bombay (Mumbai) that is told using documentary techniques and nonprofessional actors.Salaam Bombay! was the second Indian film (afterMother India [1957]) to be nominated for theAcademy Award for best foreign-language film. Nair followed this withMississippi Masala (1991), which chronicles a love affair between an Indian woman and an African American man. In 1997 she was at the center of controversy as she battled India’s censors—eventually involving the Indian Supreme Court—over the release of the feature filmKama Sutra: A Tale of Love.

Nair placed northern Indian wedding traditions at the forefront of one of her most notable works,Monsoon Wedding (2001), a comedy about an arrangedmarriage and familydynamics.Monsoon Wedding became popular for its colorful portrayal of aPunjabi wedding as well as for its peppy soundtrack. The cast included both veteran thespians, such asNaseeruddin Shah and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, and up-and-coming actors, such as Shefali Shah, Tillotama Shome, Randeep Hooda, and Vijay Raaz. Next, Nair turned to literature for inspiration. ForVanity Fair (2004), she adaptedWilliam Makepeace Thackeray’snovel ofmanners, and thedramaThe Namesake (2006), which centers on Indian immigrants in theUnited States, was based on a novel byJhumpa Lahiri.

Nair subsequently directedAmelia (2009), a biopic about the American aviatorAmelia Earhart, andThe Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012), which follows a Pakistani émigré wrestling with his cultural identity in the aftermath of theSeptember 11 attacks. The biopicQueen of Katwe (2016) depicts the life ofUgandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi, who overcame extreme poverty to become a grandmaster.

Other work

Nair directed amusicaladaptation ofMonsoon Wedding that was first staged in 2017. She later directed five episodes of the six-part miniseriesA Suitable Boy (2020), an adaptation ofVikram Seth’s epic novel about the relations between four Indian families.

Nair has a longtime interest in activism and set up the nonprofit facilities Salaam Baalak Trust (1988) and Maisha Film Lab (2004). The Salaam Baalak Trust, founded with the profits fromSalaam Bombay!, provides education, training, health care, andcounseling for underprivileged children in Indian cities. Maisha Film Lab is aninitiative based inKampala,Uganda, that trains young filmmakers fromeastern Africa. Nair was awarded thePadma Bhushan—one of India’s highest civilian honors—in 2012.

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Personal life

Nair married academic and author Mahmood Mamdani in 1991. The couple have one son,Zohran Mamdani. Running as the Democratic Party candidate, Zohran Mamdani was electedmayor ofNew York City in November 2025.