Mira Nair

Born: 15th October, 1957
Where: Orissa, India

The actress-turned-director won acclaim for her Oscar nominated feature debut Salaam Bombay!.

The movie, about children selling tea on the streets of Bombay, also landed the Camera D'Or at Cannes and festival's audience award.

Born in India and educated at Delhi University, Nair moved to America to study theatre at the prestigious Harvard University.

Although initially keen to work as an actress she turned to documentary-making and enjoyed success with So Far From India and India Cabaret.

After Salaam Bombay! - which was nominated for an Academy Award as best foreign language film - she enjoyed further success with interracial drama Mississipi Masala.

The Perez Family, starring Alfred Molina and Anjelica Huston, told the story of an exiled Cuban family in Miami.

In 1996, her movie Kama Sutra - A Tale of Love provoked a mini scandal in India with its subject matter of lesbianism and was trimmed by the censors.

She returned to documentaries with The Laughing Club of India - which spawned a companion "virtual laughing club" online site.

In 2001, Monsoon Wedding - a class comedy about a rich Delhi family wedding - won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.

It was the first Indian film to do so in 44 years and only the third film directed by a woman to do so in 58 years.

However, it almost didn't happen after hours of footage was lost when the reels were X-rayed while being shipped to New York.

Uma Thurman landed a Golden Globe for the TV movie Hysterical Blindness and Nair also contributed a Cesar-nominated short film for inclusion in 11'09"01.

In 2004, she received mixed reviews for her adaptation of Thackeray's Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon as social climber Becky Sharp.