Mira Nair was fighting a bad cold last week.  As we sat down to talk about her new film Amelia — a biopic based on the life of the legendary aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart — Nair asked one of the film’s publicist to bring her a packet of Advils.

It had been nearly two years since Nair embarked on her first big studio project that stars Hillary Swank and Richard Gere and she was finally allowing her mind and body to relax.  Perhaps that is why she was coming down with flu like symptoms.

“I have never worked harder in my life,” Nair said.  Until now Nair has maintain that her first feature Salaam Bombay was her most challenging project.  “This was tough like Salaam Bombay,” she added.  “But different because it went from an independent film to a studio film.”

“I worked 15 to 18-hour-days for 18 months now and I have never done that,” she says.  “Because I have always had that sacrosanct period of three months in Kampala, (Nair’s husband Mahmood Mamdani, a Columbia University professor, is a Ugandan Indian and the family always used to spend the summers in their second home in Kampala).

“But with this, I could not do any of that.  Because you had to do full justice to the story, but also do a full-on commercial film.  That is the reason why you haven’t seen me for so long.”

Amelia opened in theaters on Friday.  The reviews were not positive, but for Nair what mattered was how the audience would accept the film. And she seemed proud of her work — especially getting the right notes of performances from her two leads. 

“I was attracted to the project because of Amelia’s humility that I saw in the newsreels,” she said.  “We all know that humility is not a great American trait and we are schooled in a place that really pleasures it and that was the first hook for me.”

“Hillary got Amelia’s goofy humility damn well,” she added.  “We achieved that look of her over six weeks. 

What’s amazing about her is she takes all the outwardly things and embodies it within.”

And Nair said the following about Gere:  “Richard is a terrific human being.  He has this charisma all his life.  But what is beautiful is his maturity and meditative quality that he has deep within him as a Buddhist.

In this film George Putnam (Gere’s character) goes from an impresario and hustler who packages Amelia, to falling in love with her.  That maturity and acceptance Richard brought to the film.”

One day later Nair was at the Museum of Modern Art for a benefit screening of Amelia — a fundraiser for Maisha, her film school in Kampala and also for the Indo American Arts Council — a New York City-based arts organization that has had a long relationship with Nair and her films.  Next month IAAC will host a special 20th anniversary screening of Nair’s Salaam Bombay at its ninth annual film festival. 

“I grew up in Bhubaneshwar thinking Amelia was just this androgynous girl,” Nair said at the MoMA gathering, still fighting her cold.  But she was elated. The event gave her the opportunity to talk about her dream for Maisha. 

She hopes to build a year-round film school for scriptwriting and film direction students from East Africa and South Asia.  In the audience were her supporters and friends, including authors Salman Rushdie and Jhumpa Lahiri.

Also present at the MoMA screening was Gere, who painted Nair as a tough director.

“Mira is a bulldog,” he said.  But then he added, “In reality, we both are bulldogs.  We are strong people.  We butt heads, but we usually find a way to agree.”

Gere then complemented Nair’s ability to manage a big Hollywood film, while also retaining her artistic integrity. 

“Mira Nair has an extraordinary sense of style and internal beauty,” Gere said.  “This was a case of an extremely difficult project. She kept her eye on the prize, although the film could have gotten derailed.”