Sooni Taraporevala

Sooni Taraporevala (born in 1957) is an internationally acclaimed screenwriter and photographer, currently based in India. She is best known as the screenwriter of "Mississippi Masala", "The Namesake" and Oscar-nominated "Salaam Bombay", all directed by Mira Nair.

She directed her first feature film, based on a screenplay of her own, an ensemble piece set in Bombay, in Spring, 2007. The working title of the film is "Little Zizou."

Background

Taraporevala, who is of Parsi Zoroastrian descent, resides in Mumbai, India. She graduated from Harvard University (where she met Nair as an undergraduate, leading to their longtime creative collaboration). She later attended New York University as a graduate student.

Career

creenplays

Collaboration with Mira Nair

Ms. Taraporevala wrote the screenplays for "Salaam Bombay" and "Mississippi Masala", both directed by Mira Nair. Interestingly, the final drafts of both these films were written in Brooklyn, NY. Other projects with Nair include the screenplay for "My Own Country", based on the book by Abraham Verghese as well as the cinematic adaptation of Pulitzer-prize winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, "The Namesake". The film, "The Namesake", was released in 2007.

Other Work

Her other produced credits include the film "Such a Long Journey" based on the novel "Such a Long Journey" by Rohinton Mistry and directed by Sturla Gunnarson. Finally, she wrote the screenplay for the film "Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar", directed by Dr. Jabbar Patel for the Government of India and the National Film Development Corporation of India.

Photography

Her photographs have been exhibited in India, the US, France and Britain, including London’s Tate Modern gallery.

In Fall 2004, Ms. Taraporevala released a coffee table photography book, a first-ever visual work on India's Parsi Zoroastrian community, entitled "Parsis: the Zoroastrians of India - A Photographic Journey" (Overlook Press, ISBN 1-58567-593-8). A 24-year labor of love, the book offers rare photos, as well as historical and personal essays on the Zoroastrian religion and Parsi social history. (South Asia's Parsis are descendants of immigrants who fled from an undetermined place in Persia over 1000 years ago, and have been a vital part of the Indian cultural fabric since then).

Taraporevala had previously self-published the book in India in 2000, where it sold out in just a few months. The book received glowing advance praise from film director Mira Nair, Harvard literature professor and noted postcolonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha, acclaimed writers Rohinton Mistry and Bapsi Sidhwa and conductor Zubin Mehta.

Filmography

*"Little Zizou" (2009) (as writer-director)
*"The Namesake" (2006)
*"Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar" (2000)
*"Such a Long Journey" (1998)
*"My Own Country" (1998) (Showtime TV)
*"Mississippi Masala" (1991)
*"Salaam Bombay!" (1988)

Awards

* 1991: Golden Osella (Best Original Screenplay) Venice Film Festival: "Mississippi Masala" (with Mira Nair) [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102456/awards Mississippi Masala - Awards] "Internet Movie Database".]

References

External links

"Biography":
* [http://www.soonitaraporevala.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Taraporevala+Sooni SAWNET biography]
*

"Misc.":
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4223182 NPR radio feature]
* [http://www.iranian.com/Arts/2004/November/Parsi/ Iranian.com feature]
* [http://www.orlandoweekly.com/artsculture/story.asp?id=3720 Orlando Weekly book review]
* [http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/book/story/E474DA9FDDED9FD286256FD400521032?OpenDocument&highlight=2,"taraporevala" St Louis Post-Dispatch- NYTimes wire story]