‘Politeness can kill you in movies’

What element of her personality did you want to bring out?
Amelia’s world-view as a child living in Atchison County,Kansas,which is akin to living in Bhubaneshwar,Orissa. Her father gave her a globe when she was seven. She spun it and brought to life the places of the world in her mind. She dreamt of the world,which was different from the insularity of most of America. I was very committed to showing that.
All her record-breaking flights led towards seeing the world as she had dreamt of it as a child. In some ways,I felt the same when I was growing up in Orissa. I remember a young man having a crush on me when I was less than 11. I never returned the sentiment and said,“I want to see the world before I can give you my heart”.

How much did you know about Amelia Earhart before directing the film?
Growing up in Bhubaneshwar,Amelia,for me,was a lanky and erogenous image on a postage stamp. That was it. When I was a student in the US,I learnt of her like you learn of Kasturba Gandhi here. But I learnt of her spirit more after I was asked to make the film. She was intriguing as she created her own way,in terms of fashion,in terms of refusing to wear a frock,but without showy flamboyance.

Where has the film been shot?
It is largely shot in Halifax,northern Canada,from where she took off and we based ourselves in Zimbabwe and Namibia in Africa. There,we recreated Brazil,Chad,Dakar and all the places she flew to. We even have a brief scene in the Dum Dum aerodrome in Kolkata,which is recreated in Cape Town.

Were you cautious approaching a subject so deep-rooted in American culture?
Not cautious to the point of being paralysed or overly polite because politeness can kill you in movies. But certainly,I wanted to be truthful. With Hillary Swank,who is such a spiritual actor,the task was simpler. We spent two months in getting her look right,from her freckles and hair to the tan. Fortunately,we had a lot of documentation of the real Amelia from newsreels and her diary. It helped me enormously because she had a great turn of phrase and sense of humour.
My vision was more in photographing what freedom could feel like. I wanted the audience to feel that they were sitting in the cockpit as she flew the world.

Did you speak to people who knew her?
I spent sometime with (author) Gore Vidal who was a 10-year-old when Amelia died. He is almost 80 now. Amelia fell in love with Gore’s father,Gene Vidal. She had a long affair and a great friendship with him. Gore is a great raconteur. As a boy,he wanted her to marry his father and asked her to do that. The three stories he told me are in the film. He was the one person who knew her in flesh and blood.

Has Shantaram been shelved?
I don’t think it will be shelved because we have such a powerful script and an extraordinary actor in Johnny Depp.He has to decide when to bring it back. The script is ready. If it were to be revived,I hope to get involved. But I am actively involved with two other projects.

Tell us about them.
My next film is based on Mohsin Hamid’s novel,The Reluctant Fundamentalist. The screenplay has been written and I hope to shoot next spring. We have conceived it as a thriller. Powerful films have been made on the Partition but nothing that represents contemporary Pakistan. I read Mohsin’s book in manuscript form and felt it gave me the credibility to present the complications of Muslim society. I am also keen to see Kurbaan and New York on the identity issues in contemporary Muslim society. My second project is a musical spectacle of Monsoon Wedding for Broadway.

There have been rumours about casting Irrfan Khan in the lead of your adaptation of The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
I like to believe that I found Irrfan Khan in the basement of the National School of Drama when he was 18. But I like to think that people started seeing him as an actor after The Namesake. Reports of him being cast in the lead role are untrue. I am looking for a 22-year-old man.

A lot of your recent films are adaptations from novels.
South Asian writing is rich and hard to resist. Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy is my all-time favourite. I hope to make an endless film about it one day.