When Mira Nair's bangles set off security alarm

The "whole culture" is one of surveillance, says US-based Indian filmmaker Mira Nair whose bangles recently set off a security alarm at the New York airport.

Nair, whose new film "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" talks about 9/11, said: "It was an invasive search".

"It's not only the Bollywood stars who are frisked, in fact the whole culture is one of that kind of surveillance," she told reporters Wednesday at the premiere of "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" here.

"I was frisked two weeks ago when my bangles beeped and they pointed at me and screamed, 'This woman is alarming'. They didn't strip searched me but it was a pretty invasive search. At the end, it turned out to be the glove's fault not mine," she added.

Concluding, Mira said:" That kind of atmosphere, that kind of fear that you are suddenly the other, is not a hospitable one. One must hold a mirror to that and must find another way".

"The Reluctant Fundamentalist", based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Mohsin Hamid, is about the meteoric rise and fall of a Pakistani migrant in the US.

It stars Britain-based Pakistani origin actor Riz Ahmed in the lead along with Hollywood biggies Kate Hudson, Liev Schreiber and Bollywood veterans Shabana Azmi and Om Puri.