Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist is the first film of Indian origin to be the opening film at the Venice Film Festival. The core cast, Riz Ahmed, Kate Hudson, Keifer Sutherland and Live Schreiber would accompany Mira to Venice and then to the Toronto Film Festival. Says Mira, “The four main actors are going to be there with me in Venice. Then we move to Toronto where our film will be premiere in the Gala section on 8 September (2012). So it’s one hectic festival binge for us.” Mira’s films are no strangers to Venice.

With the exultation comes the rain-clouds. Just when Mira Nair was rejoicing over the singular honour of having her latest work The Reluctant Fundamentalist being selected as the opening film at the Venice Film Festival, the director has lost her father, the retired civil servant Amrit Nair. Though Mira has two older male siblings she was the closest to her father.