Thundering applause from a packed hall greeted her as Mira Nair, radiant and beaming, hands joined above her head in a humble namaste, took the stage.

Moderated by Rachel Dwyer, renowned University of London professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema, the session was on filming ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’. Nair was joined on the panel by Mohsin Hamid, whose highly-acclaimed novel the critical and commercial international hit is adapted from.

“My father was born and raised in Lahore, graduating from the Government College. So I have Lahore in my blood,” Nair told a rapt audience. “I first visited the city in 2004 and was captivated by it. It made me want to portray this contemporary Pakistan on screen that has never been seen.”

She said that Hamid’s novel resonated with her as it tells the ‘other side’ of the story in the 9/11 context, the South Asian side.

On the challenges of adapting the book, which is essentially one long monologue, Nair said the process took three years and seven drafts to finally get right.

Hamid added the main character, Changez, has a very specific voice, which is meant to convey a stereotype of Islam as a very formal and rigid system. That voice according to Hamid was what made the novel very difficult to adapt on screen.

Nair expressed great regret that she could not shoot the entire film in Lahore. However, she added she made sure to capture the essence of Lahore.

She said she wanted to expand on the intimacy of the family life that is alluded to in Hamid’s novel. She also wanted to showcase the modern sound of Pakistani music and portray the Pakistani women, who she praised as being “very spirited, gorgeous, complicated and on a whole other level.”

Nair also expressed her love of Faiz. “His poems are the reason I’m at home in Lahore,” she said. “I think the Lahoris should have something more than just an underpass in his name,” she jested. “I think he would be rather amused that he’s an underpass now.”

Hamid said the fact that big Hollywood stars, the acclaimed Turkish actor Haluk Bilginer and crew from all over the world came together to work on a film made by an Indian director based on a Pakistani author’s novel was the film’s biggest political message to him, that there are no boundaries or differences between people and human experience.