As a play, “A Nice Indian Boy” has been around since the early 2010s, moving successfully from city to city. When a screenplay adaptation came to the desk of director Roshan Sethi he wasn’t initially convinced it could transfer to film, but when he realized there were cinematic elements, such as two weddings, he knew it could work. It took four years to make, but it’s finally getting out in the world.
Currently in theaters April 4 before hitting VOD and then streaming, “A Nice Indian Boy” stars Karan Soni as Naveen, an Indian-American doctor who begins dating white photographer Jay (Jonathan Groff). This isn’t a coming out story, though. It’s about how Naveen’s traditional family learns to accepts the two as a couple. “Naveen is already out,” says Soni. “We explore this idea that you don’t really come out once in life; there are phases to it and versions of how out you can be. His family knows he is gay but he has never brought anyone home or had a real relationship that he has shared with them because he is scared and nervous about how they would react. So this is his journey of meeting (someone) very comfortable in his skin and having to confront all these things he has pushed aside for so long.”
In many ways Soni feels Naveen has done the nice Indian boy trope, which has made his family happy. He has become a doctor and maintained his role in the family, but bringing home someone his family did not expect shakes things up. Eventually, Naveen has to learn how to stand up for himself and demand to be seen.
The character of Jay is very comfortable with who he is. Yet he craves one thing Naveen has that he doesn’t. “He helps Naveen inch out of his shell, but for Jay, he has always wanted a family, which he has never really had,” says Soni. “Naveen has (one) but takes it for granted.”
Sethi and Soni have been a couple since 2018 and Soni compares the dynamic between them to the characters of Naveen and Jay. “There are a lot of parallels in this movie to my own life, including our relationship,” Soni says. “We have helped each other become more of who we are.”
Sethi has compared this to a gay “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” “The tone of ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ is for everybody,” he says. “It’s so inviting. Not just Greek people watched it. The idea of making something that was specific – Indian and gay – but for everybody was the impetus.”
Yet making a romantic comedy is not easy. “On the one hand, you have to deliver what people are craving – and what they are craving is cliches,” says Sethi. “There’s no way out. It’s more about making it particular and specific, which I think this film does – and questioning and examining those things we crave. This is not about getting around to the first kiss.”
