Mira Nair ventures into American television The Oscar-nominated director will now develop a comedy series

Oscar-nominated director Mira Nair is now developing a comedy series with Carsey-Werner-Mandabach for ABC television.

Nair, who plans to develop her comedy Monsoon Wedding into a Broadway musical, has signed on with CWM to develop an untitled project revolving around an upper-middle-class Punjabi family that runs a chain of motels in New Jersey, according to Hollywood Reporter.

She will be executive producer for the project. One of the show's central themes will be the clash of cultures between the parents, who relocated from India about 20 years ago, and their Americanised children, an 11-year-old son and a college-going daughter, says the Reporter.

'It's a very affectionate story about a family. It's about people who come from the oldest culture in the world and now find themselves living in the newest culture in the world,' Nair said, adding, 'There are wonderful, funny and poignant stories to tell of having one's soul belong to one place while the body is in another. And, of course, the kids are completely imbued with American culture.'

CWM principal Marcy Carsey said she and her partners went out of their way to court Nair for a development deal after being impressed with how she mined the humour of family life in Monsoon Wedding.

'The response was instant and immediate and, most important, (CWM and ABC) were conducive to my inspiration for the show,' Nair told the Reporter.

PTI