With her first feature film made truly believing in pure instincts and to sincerely reveal the lives that originate on the streets and meet their final hour in the same place, the acclaimed film maker Mira Nair turned the spotlight that focuses on the next emerging talents upon her.

'Saalam Bombay' released in 1988 won the nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and also got the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival.

It's going to be the end of almost two decades after 'Salaam Bombay' got released and over these years the films Mira has made can never put under under any particular category as the subjects were having different shades and they always had superb quality, were thought provoking as well as hugely entertaining.

Recently while speaking for a Televison programe called "Masterclass" to be beamed on NDTV Lumiere and organised by Indian Independent Filmmakers Worldwide (IIFW), which is a global alliance of film makers for promoting and supporting independent directors working out of Mumbai, Mira Nair spoke at length about her film making experiences and why she always like to be an independent film maker.

The film maker who started out as a documentary maker said that the one thing she wants the most is unlimited freedom and not being dictated by the views of Producers.

To not lose the independence and to make movies with her own choice, the backers of Mira's projects are always chosen after great consideration.

Speaking about her formative years during which she was into documentary film making and then completed 'Salaam Bombay' Mira let out the ways she adopted to get into the soul of the subjects based on which she was making the films.

It was very essential to know the life of the street kids of Mumbai from close quarters if a realistic movie based on their existence had to be made.

So the first thing that was done after getting together the band of kids was to organize a preparatory workshop for them.

During this time, the director got time to live with them and observe their mannerisms, behaviors, thinking, the kind of language in which they communicated etc.

This went on for some days but one day the children rejected the written dialogues given to them saying that the words written in the dialogue chart are never used by them in real life.

This led to Mira allowing them to express themselves in their own way of speaking and this added a lot to the overall perfect realistic feel for which the movie was appreciated a lot.

 The process of living and going through the same life as experienced by the subject happened in the case of the documentary titled as 'India Cabaret' in 1986 as well.

The film was about the cabaret dancers of Mumbai.

For this project Mira chose to stay with certain cabaret dancers for some days and get to know about their lives and their emotions when they had to strip and expose before men to make out a living.

 Mira Nair is one of the best known Indian film makers in the world today, but her path of success was not an extra smooth one.

She also had to struggle and win over each and every other challenge that comes as a hurdle.

Just like any other immensely successful film maker whose greatest weapon is the optimistic mentality, by this single statement of Mira we can find out how she has climbed so high.

She says "The process of film making is full of obstacles and I also had my share. I took every obstacle of mine as an opportunity and I think every director should do that."