Rainbow Crew is an ongoing interview series that celebrates the best LGBTQ+ representation on screen. Each instalment showcases talent working on both sides of the camera, including queer creatives and allies to the community.
Next up, we’re speaking to A Nice Indian Boy stars Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff.
Romcoms haven’t been this popular since the noughties, but these so-called guilty pleasures aren’t like they used to be. The tropes of the genre are still present, and just as fun as ever, but we’re not only dealing with white, straight romances anymore.
For every box office hit like Anyone But You, there’s also more inclusive fare such as Bros, Fire Island, and now A Nice Indian Boy shaking things up with a gay twist on this long established Hollywood staple.
Starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, A Nice Indian Boy kicks off with a whirlwind romance between Naveen and Jay, which runs into trouble when Naveen’s family suddenly get involved. The result is a gorgeous, heartwarming movie that hits all the right beats you’d expect, but with a refreshing Indian spin that sets A Nice Indian Boy apart as something truly special.
Digital Spy caught up with Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff to discuss awkward singing, interracial love, and why nothing is gayer than Bollywood.
We’re finally seeing more queer romcoms make it to the mainstream, including younger stories like Heartstopper and Love, Simon, but also adult fare such as Bros and Fire Island. Where does A Nice Indian Boy fit into this new wave of queer filmmaking?
Karan Soni: I think this movie is particularly loving to the parents. It feels less like it’s just about the two gay men because it’s really about a whole family and how it affects everyone. That is very specific because in Indian culture, we are very attached to the family. You can’t really do anything without their approval for the most part.
I grew up in India, and it’s always funny how in America, people just leave the house at 18 and then you can just do whatever you want. It’s not the case for us. For an Indian gay story, the parents have to be there in some form. That’s what the original play had, and that’s what the movie has.
The few times we’ve screened the film so far, it’s really the people of that generation that feel very seen, very moved by it, because it is very gentle and caring towards their experience and perspective. Not just if they’re Indian, but for every ethnicity.
Jonathan Groff: I think it’s also worth noting that [director] Roshan [Sethi] and Karan are together in real life, and the vibration of true, real love between the lead actor and the director was felt at every moment. Every crew member, everyone, just fell in love with the two of them.
I think it’s unique to have a romantic comedy, particularly a gay romantic comedy, directed by and starring a couple. It makes the experience feel very familial and full of love.
KS: With the “vibrations”, were you being literal there? Emotional? [Laughs].
JG: You know what vibrations I’m talking about, Karan [Laughs].
Speaking of vibrations, singing plays a big part in some key scenes, including the first date between your characters when Jay sings a Hindi number from Naveen’s favourite Bollywood classic, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ). Jonathan, talk us through learning the words and what that was like to perform on set.
JG: I think I got a score of like 90% from one of the guys that interviewed us before, as far as the pronunciation.
I was in the hotel in Vancouver, writing out the lyrics phonetically to that song. The character of Jay speaks Hindi, so I was supposed to know what I was saying, even though myself as the actor, Jonathan, had no idea what I was saying.
It’s funny because when I performed it, I remember it not feeling awkward. As the character, I was just full of joy and felt moved to sing. But then, when I watched the movie back, I was so tickled by how awkward it was, and the way that it was written. It was essentially written this way in the script, that it cuts back and forth, so I knew that that was coming.
But it was so funny to see the pairing of that singing with the scene. It really made me laugh.
Karan, you also have an awkward singing moment when you play out a scene from DDLJ as if you’re in the movie. But it’s also very sweet because it’s all building up to the big proposal. Can you tell us more about your experience embodying a Bollywood classic in such a physical, heartfelt way?
KS: Oh my gosh. I love getting to do bad acting, and dramatic faces and stuff. A lot of that song, because it’s a bit of an older movie and a different genre, there’s a lot of intense closing of the eyes and grabbing someone and doing all this stuff. We did little bits exactly from the movie. So they were short takes, but it was really fun.
We’ve seen some of these beats before in other romcoms, but here, the story is more culturally specific, which helps make these twists refreshing and still feel like a surprise.
KS: The tone of this movie is so wild, but I do think it works, hopefully. That scene is very funny, but then right after, I’m in the same wardrobe, but I’m doing the proposal in real life. I always cry watching that scene. For it to ping-pong between those two extremes… It feels so sincere and romantic. But the other part of it feels so silly. It kind of exists all together, and it’s very much the tone of the movie. It’s very joyous.
This joy is juxtaposed with more serious moments too. For example, I really appreciate how the pressures of being an interracial couple are brought in, but not just from the family’s perspective. We also see how Naveen and Jay have to deal with that within the relationship between them too. That’s not something we see often in any romcoms, let alone a gay one.
KS: Initially, when they were trying to get money for the movie and pitch out, the director Roshan and the producers actually interviewed a bunch of interracial couples, not just queer couples, and a lot of them had the same story of integrating into another very specific culture. So many people have that.
It’s what makes the story very universal to me, because now, in 2024, there’s more interracial couples than ever, it feels like. There’s a lot of that generation where one wants to hold on to the culture they came from, very strongly, at least in America. And then the kids who are now trying to assimilate into the new place where they’ve been born.
It feels like a very modern American story, which in this case, just happens to be two men having that experience. But especially in Indian culture, I know for sure in Indian-American culture, there’s a lot of drama still if you bring home a white boy or girl.
My friend just had a wedding. He married a white woman. She’s from a very Christian family. He’s from a very Hindu family, and there was a lot of drama. She went to Hindi classes… I mean, it’s almost more intense than what happens in this movie [Laughs].
We were surrounded by the stories and the minute we would describe the premise of the movie, people would be like, “Oh, I can relate to this. My mother-in-law didn’t speak to me until I made this one dish that is their culture.”
I think it makes the movie really special and unique. It just so happens to be that the couple is two handsome, strapping young men [Laughs].
You mentioned drama, which brings me to the end of the film and that gorgeous performance at the wedding. There’s a line in there that says, “Nothing is gayer than Bollywood,” with all the extravagance and big camp declarations of love. Talk me through your thoughts on the ending and why it works so well within the wider context of the film.
JG: I just saw the movie for the first time on Saturday. I was so struck by the sneaky way that Roshan and Eric [Randall], the writer, loop the parents in at the end.
The speech given by Zarna [Garg] completely caught me off guard because I think I’m watching a romcom about these two men, but then I realise I’m watching a romcom about a brother and a sister. I’m watching a romcom about a mother and a father, and about their marriage, specifically, not even as parents, but as husband and wife. That really just wrecked me when I was watching. It’s so emotional, so sneaky, how it takes you there.
At the end… I mean, there’s nothing gayer to me than an Indian wedding. So to have such a flamboyant dance at the end that’s about inclusion in every form; inclusion of the two men, inclusion of someone coming into a family, the father holding out the hand in the dance. For something to be so over the top and so flamboyant, but also feel so grounded and rooted in truth and emotion and relationships…
In the day of shooting it, I was just blown away by the dancing and the music, but when I was watching it back, I was so touched by the depth of… It sort of made me understand ceremony. It’s actually like, “Oh, this is why we have ceremonies.” To emphasise this very important intimate connection.
It’s like the antithesis of intimacy in order to properly celebrate and acknowledge what’s happening between these people. It was so beautiful. It’s like, this is why we have weddings, of course.
KS: I don’t know if you know this, Jonathan, but the dance was not in the original script. It was one of our producers’ idea, Renee [Witt], who was a white lady.
To be honest, if you’re South Asian and writing or doing anything in Hollywood, they will usually be like, “So can they dance in the end?” Rosh and I were like, “Absolutely not. That’s racist. That’s offensive.”
It ended on the mom’s speech, or some version of that in the original. And then, one of the financiers loved RRR and loved the song that performed at the Oscars. It was around the time we were reworking the script, and they were like, they just really want a song.
Eventually, we were like, “Well it is a wedding. They do dance at weddings. Maybe we can kind of make it part of the story, over the credits or something like that.” And now Rosh and I — we’ve watched the movie several times — We really cannot imagine the movie ending any other way. Thank God she suggested that, because it is just the perfect, joyous way to end the story.
Looking back, is there a queer show or film that really resonated with you in particular, that really spoke to you on a deeper level?
JG: I have two things that come immediately to mind. One is being in middle school and watching the first episode of Will and Grace.
In the end scene of the pilot, they’re at a bar and they kiss each other to see if it will work between the two of them. And I remember my young heart being like, “Oh no. Are they just gonna be together?” Then it’s this comedy moment where they break apart, and they’re like, “Yeah, no. That’s never happening.”
The great relief of that and knowing that this was going to be a show with gay people in it — I was so far from coming out of the closet. I’d never even kissed a boy. I was years away from kissing a boy at that point — but feeling the relief of that.
Then when I saw the movie Weekend at the IFC Center. I think it was 2012, 2011? That was the first time I saw a movie, a ‘gay’ movie, where I felt like I was watching my life on screen. I felt so connected to the way that that Andrew Haigh shot that movie, and the way he captured the intimacy and the sex and the humanity and the conversations. That one really rocked me.
KS: Mine is Will and Grace too, because prior to that, I watched a lot of American TV in India, but everything with a gay character, it would be a shameful thing. The storyline would be, “Oh my god, I caught them kissing,” and that character was like, “Don’t tell my secret.” It was always a “bad” thing. And that’s kind of how I already felt inside, so it was just perpetuating that whole cycle.
With Will and Grace, my parents used to watch it. So just the fact that it was so normalised, that they were watching and laughing… I don’t even know if they really understood it. They love Sean Hayes, him being flamboyant. We never really talked about any of it, but we used to just get the DVDs and watched the show. Even though we never talked about it, it’s seared in my memory as such a thing.
And then, in a crazy moment, I got to do one scene in the reboot of Will and Grace, in the third season of the reboot. It was literally the smallest scene. They were like, “You want to do this?” And I was like, “I will do anything.” I played a pizza delivery boy who flirts with — I was straight [Laughs] — with Debra Messing’s character.
I’d forgotten about it for so long, and then to be on set, which felt like the set from the show, it was very crazy experience.
A Nice Indian Boy premiered in the UK at the London Film Festival. A wider release is expected in early 2025.
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