India-born Deepa Mehta’s A Funny Boy is Canada’s Oscar Submission

She should know all about this divide having suffered during her planned shoot in Varanasi of Water, which was the third in a trilogy – Fire and Earth being the first two. Mehta had everything wrapped up at Varanasi for a schedule of several days. The two lead actresses, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, playing Vrindavan widows, had their head tonsured, but radical political elements caused chaos, saying that the movie was against India’s culture.

Seemed strange, for it was no secret how the widows lived – in a life bereft of any joy or comfort and in utter poverty. So, Mehta shot Water in Sri Lanka many months later with Lisa Ray and John Abraham.