Author Mohsin Hamid says he got along well with Indian film-maker Mira Nair, who adapted his novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist into a movie.
While working with the US-based Indian director, Hamid found that he and Nair share some similar things.
“I really clicked with her as a person. She is someone who comes from southern Asia and has spent many years here, but has lived abroad for almost half her life. I am the same,” Hamid said in a statement.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, an adaptation of the 2007 eponymous bestseller, focuses on a young Pakistani chasing corporate success on Wall Street.
However, post-9/11, he finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family’s homeland.
Talking about Nair’s initiative of filming the movie, Hamid said, “An Indian director making a film about a Pakistani man — that’s not an easy thing to do.”
Hamid came to the US to study at Princeton University. After that, he lived in London for several years before returning to Lahore. Nair left India to attend Harvard University, and subsequently moved to New York.
Starring actors Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Liev Schreiber, Riz Ahmed, Shabana Azmi and Om Puri and Misha Shafi, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is slated to release in May in Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 9th, 2013.
Like Life & Style on Facebook for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.