As The Namesake, the film made by Mira Nair, based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, opened to critical as well as box-office acclaim in the West last week , Vibhuti Patel spoke to Jhumpa in New York about the film versus the book, her characters, her connections with her Bengali family, her relationship with Nair, and her new work.

"I felt honoured that a filmmaker whose vision I admired had read my book, liked it and wanted to make a film out of it."

Excerpts from their conversation:

Patel: What made you sell the film rights of The Namesake?

Lahiri: Money's always welcome (it wasn't a life-altering sum) as was the possibility of the film being made. I felt honoured that a fresh, incredible filmmaker whose vision I admired had read my book, liked it and wanted to make a film out of it. She expressed such passion, enthusiasm and profound understanding of the story, and had such strong ideas for what she wanted to do, it seemed ideal.

Weren't you nervous to give up control?

I never want to deal with a book once I'm finished writing. When I gave the book to Mira, I felt like a parent who sees a child go off to forge her own way in the world. The book and Mira came together and created another thing. Now, I feel like the happy grandparent. I know I'm connected to it—it's descended from me—but I don't feel a direct connection to it. Besides, I was working on another book then, I had a little boy, I was pregnant, my life was full, brimming. And Mira wasn't someone just out of film school that I'd never heard of, this was a gifted filmmaker with an impressive track record. Talking to her for just an hour, I knew she'd make something beautiful, strong and passionate with this book. What's important to me is not to have something adhering faithfully to what I've written, what matters to me is that it have integrity.

"It's not a scene-and-dialogue novel.... So I appreciated scenes that came out of (small details, throwaway lines)."

If nothing else, Mira is an artist of integrity. My job is to write books. It's thrilling to have a beautiful movie come out of my book but even if the movie had not been successful, it's her thing. It's not my intention to control that. My book is my book, nothing can ever change that.

Had you thought this novel would be made into a film?

No, I didn't understand how it could be, because the writing is so internal, so concentrated. It's not a classic scene-and-dialogue based novel. It was a learning process for me to see how a screenwriter works with a book like that: take small details—things I wrote—and create a whole scene out of it with its own arc of drama. I use the narrative technique, but drama is the backbone of everything I write. So I appreciated scenes in the film that came out of what I did not write, such as the scene in which Ashima goes to the laundromat and shrinks Ashoke's sweater: he's furious, she locks herself in the bathroom, then he softens. In the book, it's one throwaway sentence. I never thought to make that into a scene. In the movie, you need that depth of detail; Mira stops, pauses, opens it up to give us a glimpse of their relationship. Many scenes in the film are dilated from little things in the book. I found it fascinating.

The film leaves out a lot, too...

Writing has certain advantages, film is another way to tell a story. An experienced filmmaker will take what she needs from the book, and leave out other things.

"I don't know if Mira's reacting to the book, or is influenced by Bengali directors, but she's made a Bengali film."

With adaptations, you never get the texture of the writing, it's a different mode. Many things in my book do not exist on screen but I let it go because I knew whatever Mira did would be interesting. That's what mattered to me—not whether she was faithful to my book. When I saw the film, I was overwhelmed by the power of what was there. It's Mira's stamp on the story. Mira and I have very different sensibilities as artists. She has warmth and effusiveness in her telling of stories, my writing tends to be more restrained and pared down. As an artist, she has a different energy; yet, there's a purity about the film, a restraint that I really appreciate. That restraint was important to me.

So, has The Namesake turned out as you visualised it?

I never visualised it, I think of it as words. I was curious to see it through someone else's eyes, to see how it would become a movie. I hadn't any expectations because I never thought of my book becoming a film—I was more curious about the how rather than the what. Coming off Monsoon Wedding's rich, lavish effusiveness, I wondered how this would turn out. But this film's a departure for Mira. She's pulled back, made something spare, it's a tight family film with intensity. I don't know if she's reacting to the book or, if it's something she wants to explore or, that she drew inspiration from Bengali filmmakers who have that sensibility, but she's made a Bengali film.

(When Mira said she wanted me on screen, I wanted to say) "no. My husband said, a world-famous director will never ask you again."

Her amazing range is exciting to watch.

She's had some misses...

That's the case with any artist, writer, filmmaker. You can't have a hit every time. The main thing is to keep on working and not be afraid to take risks. It's better to do something that's not perfect and successful every time, it's important to be fearless and move forward, to learn from what went wrong. The alternative is the kind of safe, stifled work that satisfies neither the maker nor the person who's going to experience it.

What was it like to see your characters come to life? To hear them speak Bengali?

When I write a book, characters come to life for me somewhere at the back of my head. I strive to make them flesh and blood in an abstract way, in words. They are blurry images in my mind, not "real" as the actors make them onscreen. And because I write in English, I have to force my characters to speak English, that's the only way out. But there's a frustrating lack of reality because when I'm writing, I hear the words in Bengali in my head. I loved hearing the characters speaking Bengali in the film's early scenes.

How were you, who are so camera shy, persuaded into appearing in the film?

Mira was insistent! As she'd put her family into Monsoon Wedding, she wanted me and my family—here and in Calcutta—to be in this movie. My instinct was to say no but she felt strongly about it. My husband said, "A world-famous director is never going to ask you again, 'Jhumpa, please be on the screen'!" So I agreed. My parents, my baby daughter, my sister, my Calcutta aunts, uncles, cousins are all in the film. Metaphorically, it's lovely: after my parents settled here, we always went back (to India) but there's been this wall...over the past 40 years, only a few people from that side have come here. Now, relatives from both sides of that wall are together—within this film.

It's a memento for your family...

That was Mira's intention. She did very personal things with the movie—like using my grandfather's paintings, his photograph is on the wall in one scene. These tiny things will mean something to me forever. Her wish to put me in the movie was deep.

What's your next book? Will you be open to filming that?

If Mira—or someone like her—approaches me with the same enthusiasm and deep understanding of what I've written, I'd agree. I'm deep in a book that I've just finished, it's another book of stories. It comes out next spring.