MIRA NAIR - NAIR LAUNCHES AIDS AWARENESS INITIATIVE

Bollywood director MIRA NAIR has launched an initiative to promote Aids awareness - by showing short films on the impact of the disease during movie screenings. The Jaago project, which is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aims to harness the "immense power" of Indian cinema to "wake people up about Aids". Nair assigned one AIDS topic to each director involved in the project, "and then they had the freedom to do what they needed to do" for the 15-minute movie. She says, "I proposed that I would get together the most cutting-edge, commercial, populist film directors from different regions of India, who would each use iconic movie stars who are recognized in our country, who would each make a dramatic tale of 15 minutes in length." And Nair hopes to take the project across the world. She adds, "They can really translate anywhere, China, Africa, anywhere. If these four films succeed, then next year we can get another four directors (to do another series)."