Talking to a popular Indian Daily about her life from Bhubaneshwar to Hollywood he said that she while she acted in plays, mostly as boy's mother, she ate onions before love scenes with Shashi Tharoor.

She started by telling about her birth in Rourkela. Mira lived in Bhubaneshwar till she was 18 years old and that she had attended a convent in Bhubaneshwar while her brothers could go to Mayo College. He had also expressed her displeasure in the place and always secretly wanted to move to a better place.

Later Nair had moved to Loreto, Shimla from where she had finally taken shelter at Miranda House in Delhi. It was in Delhi that she learned of Barry John in the theaters and he had a big influence on her life.

She was generally picked to play the role of a mother for a boy while she was jealous of her friend, Lillete Dubey who was always chosen to play sexier roles than her. She was also reminded that she used to eat onions while acting in the love scenes with Shashi Tharoor because of his pontifical attitude.

She talked of Cleopatra role that she played with six other slaves in 'Langotis' who have turned to very successful lives today in Miranda. One among them was Amitav Ghosh. She later went to Harvard, traveling abroad for the first time. Her true career had begun at Harvard, where there were no theaters. She had to take up documentary film-making from which she slowly transgressed into film-making.

She was also offered the direction for the movie Harry Potter 4 but she had signed up for directing Namesake. She also said that her decision was driven by her son's words 'Mama any good director can make Harry Potter but only you can make Namesake'. The director for Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on the book by Mohsin Hamid, said “If we do not tell our side of the story, we will always be in the imperial hands of Hollywood” talking about her new movie on the lives in contemporary Pakistan.

(AW- Anil )