Mira Nair and Vishal Bhardwaj

'Queen of Katwe' is a Disney film. You've been working in the Hollywood studio system for years now, the exact variants of which, and the same suits, operate out of Bollywood as well. Surprising that you haven't made a film from Bombay's Hollywood studio network yet...
'Queen of Katwe' is actually an 'independent' film. And very much 'my' film at its core, set in my front-yard in Kampala, Uganda, where I've been living for 27 years now. When Tendo Nagenda, the Ugandan born vice-president at Disney, came to me with a remarkable story (of chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi) that he'd read in a newspaper article (by Tim Cothers), I didn't know about it, although it took place 16 minutes away from my house. I am inspired by people who make it from nothing. It's the same values that embody Disney, but the style is radically different. Disney has never made a film set in modern-day Africa without animals in them! But they never asked me to sanitise it either. It's truthful, stylish, and about the place.