The Story Behind Viral Pic Of Mira Nair As Cleopatra & Shashi Tharoor As Antony Is A Must-Read!
Before Mira Nair became ace filmmaker and Shashi Tharoor a politician, they used to learn theatre together. In a throwback picture going viral. Nair is in the role of Cleopatra and Tharoor is essaying the role of Antony.
Before Mira Nair became an ace filmmaker and Shashi Tharoor a politician, they used to learn theatre together. The filmmaker who has some internationally acclaimed movies under her name like Mississippi Masala, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, The Namesake, Monsoon Wedding, and Salaam Bombay among others, turns a year older today. On the occasion of her birthday, an old photo has made its way to social media in which this duo can be seen performing a play together.
Twitter
What characters are they playing? Nair is in the role of Cleopatra and Tharoor is essaying the role of Antony.
Another picture on Mira Nair's birthday, Pablo Bartholoew's classic shot of the 1974 St. Stephen's production of Anthony & Cleopatra. Shashi Tharoor and Mira Nair playing the lead roles, but a supporting cast that also went on to do interesting things. pic.twitter.com/PtM8WLGXKk
¡ª Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 15, 2020
Theatre personality Amir Raza Hussain played a significant part, and a host of prominent civil servants including Ramu Damodaran & Arun Singh also featured. And Cleopatra's slave boys included writer Amitav Ghosh & advertising legend Piyush Pandey, wearing langotis, no less.
¡ª Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 15, 2020
If you're going bonkers over this picture, wait till you read the crazy story behind this.
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In an interview with the Times Of India earlier, Nair while talking about her college days had spilled the beans. "I got seriously involved with theatre where Barry John became a big influence. In all the plays I always got to play the boy¡¯s mother while my friend Lillete Dubey got to play the sexy girl. I must mention here that I used to eat onions before my love scenes with Shashi Tharoor because he was so pompous. I also remember playing Cleopatra where I had six slaves in langotis. Today, all those slaves are famous boys including Amitav Ghosh."
Shashi Tharoor had earlier shared this picture himself.
This classic b&w pic by Pablo Bartholomew of @MiraPagliNair & me in the St Stephen's College production of Shakespeare's "Antony & Cleopatra", 1974, turned into colour by @KS1729. The play also featured @GhoshAmitav, AmirRazaHusain &others who have gone on to major achievements. pic.twitter.com/MjYYMwDcXv
¡ª Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 15, 2019
Writer and orator Joy Bhattacharjya shared another interesting anecdote about Nair and her mother.
On Mira Nair's birthday, a lovely story about her mum, who accompanied her for a screening of Salaam Bombay at Cannes. The paparazzi, seeing a distinguished looking lady in a sari, asked her what part she played in the film. She airily replied, 'I'm the producer of the director.' pic.twitter.com/JT1RifcqxP
¡ª Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 15, 2020
Happy birthday, Mira Nair!
Garima Satija leads the Entertainment vertical of Indiatimes. A storyteller at heart who enjoys the thrill of writing, she is sometimes found daydreaming about living the lives of movie characters. Also, she hates talking about herself in the third person.
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