(CNN) -- From "Mississippi Masala" to "Vanity Fair," Mira Nair's movies have entranced audiences in India and the West. CNN spoke to the director of "Monsoon Wedding" and "Salaam Bombay!" at the Bollywood Movie Awards in Long Island about filmmaking in India and America and her adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel about loss and family, "The Namesake." ............................... Film director Mira Nair CNN: What inspired you to make "The Namesake"? Mira Nair: I happened to read "The Namesake" on a plane in early 2004, when I traveled from New York to Jo'berg to finish the filming of "Vanity Fair." I read "Namesake" while in huge grief with the death of a beloved person to me [Mira's mother in law]. It was at that state of mourning that I picked up this novel, and in it Jhumpa writes really acutely of a loss of a parent in a foreign country, and I thought I had been understood by someone.
@highlight
Nair directed "Monsoon Wedding," "Vanity Fair," "Salaam Bombay!"
@highlight
Her film, "The Namesake," is based on Jhumpa Lahiri's novel
@highlight
Nair cast character of "Gogol" after teenage son's recommendation
@highlight
Nair: Indian and American audiences "not that different"
Nair: In India it is more about orchestrating chaos, and it's about sifting the chaos, but I get especially excited about the throb and chaos on the streets and so on, and in @placeholder it's about paying for the chaos, you know every head has to be placed there and paid for.