On Dec. 7, the faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the department of English will host a conversation with Shyam Selvadurai, writer-in-residence, and Deepa Mehta, internationally renowned filmmaker. Mehta’s recent film, I Am Sirat, will be screened at this event at the Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre.
In 2020, Selvadurai and Mehta collaborated to adapt Funny Boy, Selvadurai’s best-selling book into a feature film. Selvadurai talks about the inspiration behind his work: “Each novel is thus driven by a different inspiration. But over and beyond that, what keeps me writing is some necessary story-telling urge that I don’t really understand. It just is there and I am happiest when I am writing.”
As an author who has been writing for over 30 years, Selvadurai says the “world of writing and publishing is a game of musical chairs and you never know when you’re going to be eliminated, or eliminate yourself because you have nothing new to say, no new book in you. I seem to keep going and that I consider success.”
Selvadurai completed his undergraduate degree at York and taught at the university until 2010. “The campus [has] greatly changed both in its architecture and the diversity of the student population. This diversity meant that I got to work with students from many backgrounds and experiences and therefore I found my work as writer-in-residence very fulfilling,” he adds.
Mehta also holds an honorary degree from York. As a filmmaker, she explains that she is most inspired by her curiosity of the world. “I was born and brought up in India and have seen to this day the struggle South Asians grapple with. Duty versus self determination is a conundrum we deal with in some form or the other. In women, generally, self determination is often interpreted as ‘selfish!’ The fallout out of this adage I find extremely intriguing — fascinating enough to explore in films, my chosen form of expression.”
I Am Sirat follows the dual life of Sirat Taneja, a transwoman living in India. Mehta adds that she is most looking forward to sharing the character of Sirat with the York community. Selvadurai comments, “Like any great narrative, I am Sirat gave me the chance to live in a world I couldn’t have entered otherwise.”
To learn more about this event, click here.
