Mira Nair's 'A Suitable Boy' all set to roll

Venice Golden Lion-winning filmmaker Mira Nair, who is in Cannes this year as the mentor of the Institut Francais' La Fabrique programme, is all set to begin filming her long-in-gestation adaptation of Vikram Seth's best-selling novel "A Suitable Boy" in September in Delhi and other locations across northern India.

"I'm already deep into the project, which is a BBC series of six one-hour episodes. The casting is 80 per cent done," she told PTI in an interview here.

However, she has yet to take the final call on who will play Lata, the young woman at the heart of the sprawling story.

"I've been looking for an actress to play Lata for six months now. A major movie star wants to do it. I would love to have her on board. But I am also looking at a couple of unknown possibilities. I cannot, therefore, declare a name because it is still cooking," said Nair.

Her connection with "A Suitable Boy" goes back to 1994, the year the book was published.

"I simply love the book. I tried to get the rights when it was written," she said.

"But it was too big and too hard to adapt at that point. So, I created my own microcosmic response to the huge epic by making my own intimate 'Monsoon Wedding'. It is great to be going back to it."
"In fact, we'd like to bring it to Cannes. We'll be finished in time for the festival in 2020. But if not Cannes, then Venice."