Whenever I am asked how I see myself-after all, I do live in three different places-I say, look at my 18 Indian passports and the accordion of visas that goes with it. I'm an Indian passport holder and I'd rather stand in the line of the other for a visa than give it up. Being an Indian is a great source of pride and relief. It's such a privilege to come from the wellspring of my culture.

When I see my class at Columbia University, New York, where I teach filmmaking, I'm so heartened. Six first-year students, all from South Asia, have made the six best films this year. I just wept at the first three films I saw, they were so unbelievable. Give them a few more years and these kids will be a real challenge to us.

I'm often asked why there is no movement comparable to Indo-Anglian writing in Indian filmmaking and my answer is: writers need pens, filmmakers need armies. There is a vast diaspora making films out there, but most of what they're doing is still pretty wobbly. As for the buzz about the Mumbai film industry being an entertainment powerhouse, I have to say that it is part flavour of the moment and part reality. These movements are created by those on the margins of creativity like the Selfridges store in London but they are important in raising awareness. Yet it is not a bandwagon effect. We have to continue making exciting work that lasts. Each one of us has to keep pushing the envelope, otherwise we'll become a la mode.

That's where Maisha, my film lab which begins in 2004, comes in. Every year, we will pick up 12 writer-directors from India and East Africa and set them up for three weeks with 12 mentors-writer-directors of international repute. I believe that if we don't tell our own stories no one else will. In our part of the world, from Africa eastwards, there are no places where young people in the world can dream in images. Their reality cannot be seen by anybody beyond their village.

When I was growing up in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, I often dreamt of a world beyond, but at least I had class and education behind me. The girl in Meghalaya doesn't have that. But now, when we want to create a new generation of dreamers what do we have beyond Bollywood and the Film and Television Institute of India? I believe in real excellence on my terms, no apologies. That's what I believe we need in our filmmakers. We have so much latent talent but not the craft of how to write a screenplay and how to produce a movie. Why is Australia in people's consciousness? It is because of its film schools. Why is Nigeria now in people's consciousness? It is because of the film schools there.

I'm a great believer in craft and discipline, I'm a soldier of craft. Look at Monsoon Wedding. With the sole exception of the four heads of department, everyone on the film was a first-timer, but the standard was uncompromising. That is a big example of what Indian filmmakers can achieve. There's no dearth of talent in India but it has to be shaped, guided. People have to bust their butts.

For me, India really informs everything I do. Like the $24 million (Rs 11.52 crore) Vanity Fair I'm going to start shooting in March. The book is set in a time when England saw its first flush of wealth. All the men in Vanity Fair worked in India. One of them is unrequited in love and travels as far away from Becky Sharp, the heroine, as he possibly can. I wanted to bring in India to give that distance, which is why I've set three scenes in Kerala. The book's politics is very much informed by the rape of the colonies.

We are also finally putting the Indian community into mainstream American tv by collaborating on a soap for ABC on a motel-owning Indian family, which is going to be incredible for the opportunities it will give South Asian actors and will highlight the trials, tribulations and just the incredible heart of our community here.

We are also taking Monsoon Wedding to Broadway in 2004. The lead producer of this year's smash hit Hairspray is producing and I'm directing it. You could say I'm drawn to India because Mirabai Films has also bought the film rights to Hari Kunzru's The Impressionist, which would make an amazing screenplay. Then my long-time collaborator Sooni Taraporevala is adapting Tony Kushner's new play Homebody/Kabul on the Taliban. HBO is financing it.

In between all this, I hope to do some gardening in Kampala. I think I can manage that.

The writer is a filmmaker who divides her time between the US, Uganda and India. Her film Monsoon Wedding is one of the top 10 highest grossing foreign films of all time in the US.