Overview
- Speaking at the 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Grant said his father, a soldier, was born in a northern town of British India that may now lie in Pakistan.
- He quipped that this would make him “half Indian” and noted he recently struggled to locate his father’s birth certificate for a visa application.
- Grant revisited his 1988 shoot for the French film La Nuit Bengali in Kolkata, saying the city won him over after an initial culture shock.
- He recounted a young chauffeur named Bishu who crashed within weeks and later resurfaced proudly as a school bus driver, and he described being drawn into Kolkata high society at venues like the Tollygunge Club and meeting Moon Moon Sen.
- On Indian cinema, he praised Satyajit Ray as a genius, said he has seen little Bollywood, and fondly recalled working with Merchant Ivory on Maurice in 1987.