Deepa Mehta to be honoured at IIFA

Mumbai, June 9 (IANS) Award-winning director Deepa Mehta, whose film "Water" was short-listed for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, will be honoured at the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) as the brightest Indian director abroad.

Mehta is touched and amused. "All my career I've fought the label of the NRI director. And now when I'm being honoured by my own movie industry, I've finally come to terms with the NRI label," Mehta said from Yorkshire.

"The most interesting part of IIFA is that I get to meet filmmakers from India. I just attended a symposium on Satyajit Ray with Rituparno Ghosh and others. It was just so satisfying," said Mehta, who is attending the IIFA Weekend for the first time.

Mehta, who will have Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan for her film "Exclusion", said her meeting with the 'Big B' was very satisfying.

"Our meeting was long due. And we needed to sort some things out. There's no way I'm going to exclude him from 'Exclusion'. It's my dream project," she said.

The two have discussed the nitty-gritty's of the project, she said.

"In principle Bachchan loves the idea. I'd have finished the script if it weren't for my father's death. Because of this I'm not up to writing right now and have accepted to direct an outside script ('Luna') first. But 'Exclusion' with Bachchan is definitely on next."

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Water