The very talented Konkona Sen Sharma's latest is a short film directed by Mira Nair for a movie project called 8.

In the segment called 'How Can It Be?' an educated Muslim woman in New York decides to leave her husband and son to become the second wife of a traditional Muslim man and wear a veil. Ranvir Shorey plays the husband, Arif, and Konkona's character is called Zeinab.

The buzz is that eyebrows will be raised when the true story scripted by Suketu Mehta is seen on screen. In fact the United Nations initially supported the project, but withdrew its logo fearing that the Nair segment on gender equality might offend Muslims. News stories from Rome also said the French producers of 8 decided to boycott it over Nair's short feature.

After the Rome Film Festival, the segment was shown at the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival in New York recently.

Konkona Sen Sharma could not get a part in Mira Nair's 'The Namesake' but the two kept in touch, and thus she got this role.

According to Nair the film is about women making their own choices for better or worse.

The film was shot in just about two days and much of it in the home of writer Amitav Ghosh in New York.

Nair made time for it in between her work on 'Ameilia', her high profile film on the legendary American pilot Amelia Earhart starring Hilary Swank which releases mid 2009.

The film, '8', also features the work of directors from across the globe -- Gael Garcia Bernal, Jane Campion, Jan Kounen, Abderrahmane Sissako, Wim Wenders and Gus Van Sant and was shot in US, Australia, South America and Africa.

Nair said it offers the directors' views on the eight Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000 by the United Nations like eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, combating AIDS and promoting gender equality.