By Gary Kramer–
Opening April 4 in the Bay Area, the charming romcom A Nice Indian Boy, directed by Roshan Sethi and adapted from Madhuri Shekar’s popular play, has Naveen (Karan Soni) being pressured by his extended family to get married. But Naveen, who is gay (and out), is reluctant to have his boyfriends—not that he currently has one—meet his traditional, but accepting, family.
That all changes when he has a meet cute with Jay (Jonathan Groff), a photographer who was adopted by Indian parents. The guys have an awkward first date, but their relationship soon grows into love. The guys even consider marriage. But then Jay meets Naveen’s parents, Megha (Zarna Garg) and Archit (Harish Patel), and things get fraught.
A Nice Indian Boy plays up its comedy and its drama as Naveen tries to salvage his relationships with both his boyfriend and his family. In doing so, he experiences emotions that dissolve his fear and open him up to deeper love.
Sethi and Soni, who are a real-life couple off-screen, spoke with me for the San Francisco Bay Times about making A Nice Indian Boy.
Gary M. Kramer: Are you both nice Indian boys?
Karan Soni: I am; he is not.
Roshan Sethi: I am more of a mess. But Karan is the definition of a nice Indian boy. He really is.
Karan Soni: Roshan is a spicy Indian boy.
Roshan Sethi: I’m probably too opinionated.
Gary M. Kramer: Your film presents various ideas about romance, relationships, and the bigness of love from arranged marriages to meet cutes, to grand gestures, to Bollywood films, and weddings. What are your thoughts about romance as it is presented in the film as well as in real life?
Roshan Sethi: Both of us, interestingly, come from families that were born out of an arranged marriage. My parents and Karan’s parents both met each other as a set up by their parents and got married hours to days after meeting each other. We grew up with a different kind of love in our households—not the Western vision of fall in love, there is only one person for you out there.
We grew up with something that I would say was more prosaic and mundane, a more dutiful, decent, more long-lasting kind of love that wasn’t an initial burst of affection. In contrast to that, our families grew up watching Bollywood, which is full of extravagant visions of love that are so extravagant they are embarrassing, and clumsy. It is interesting that, in India, where people predominantly have arranged marriages, this (popular) art form (has) people falling in love at first sight. Those contrasts are deliberate. It was an escape valve for what can be at times a repressive culture. Those are the different kinds of love we grew up with, and hopefully the film represents those two extremes. I think most relationships contain them.
Gary M. Kramer: There is considerable talk about fear, shame, and discomfort within relationships. What observations do you have about this idea and how gay men, in general, try to hide themselves and please others?
Karan Soni: It is true to how I was for most of my life before this relationship with Roshan the last few years. My particular coming out was a little bit traumatic. It didn’t go off well in the beginning with my family, but even after that, when they were “accepting” of it, I was afraid of rocking the boat again. I cannot introduce them to someone I’m dating, so it was like we were pretending that nothing was happening with my love life in any way. It is all rooted with that initial reaction; if it is not positive, you don’t want to go back to that place.
The film has so many parallels to my own life. I grew up in India, and Indians have big lavish extravagant weddings, but you never see same-sex couples celebrated the same way. It is this very bizarre, traumatizing experience to grow up with because you are not seeing people like you having this big celebration in a public way. The fact that the character in A Nice Indian Boy, wants that, and is not settling for a behind-the-closed-doors acceptance, was moving to me. This will be a cool image to see onscreen because we have not seen that in an Indian wedding. It was very moving to be in that scene and do those things, because it is something I have not experienced in real life either.
Gary M. Kramer: The film is very much playing to a broad audience, emphasizing love rather than sex. What are your thoughts about representations of queer and Indian culture and making both universal rather than specific?
Roshan Sethi: There is a sex scene and all kinds of other scenes that come from clichés of romcoms. It was important for us that the movie contained the whole spectrum of our lived existence. That is what we were aiming for.
Karan Soni: It is interesting that there is a gay love story at the center, but the parents and the sister all get a full arc. We wanted to make something you could watch with your family, because so much of gay art can be very overtly in your face. The play and film do not villainize the parents. It is gentle to their perspective. I am in a gentle mood, not villainizing people; let’s lead with love. This film puts good energy out in the world. You leave feeling better and maybe even wanting to call your parents. That’s all very Bollywood, and the film is an homage to Bollywood. Parents are a big part of our love story.
Roshan Sethi: But it’s not sanitized. There is still a sex scene. We shot the sex scene as a Bollywood sequence, through a shear sari as an Indian South Asian song is playing. This is to show a sex scene from our particular angle. Parents can watch that too. We have to be gay gay. As much as the film is not political, the existence of a gay Indian movie in 2025 is radical.
Watching DEI gays fall in love is so opposite the current vibe. The only way to resist is to indulge in art like this, which generates empathy for the inner lives of people that the mainstream political system is asking you to ignore.
Gary M. Kramer: What experiences have you had as gay Indian men working in the entertainment industry?
Roshan Sethi: It is very hard right now. With Trump’s second election, the entire industry is oriented actually around fear. As a result, we are going to see less of what we’ve seen the last few years, so fewer diverse stories and fewer gay stories. It is very clear they are trying to return what they consider (to be) mainstream, not understanding that most vital art is produced at the periphery by people who do not belong to the majority of
society.
We are about to watch Hollywood embark on a few years of less vital art in an attempt not to disturb the apple cart. To me, it is an incredibly ominous time. What makes it truly heartbreaking (is that), in the Biden years and around the time of BLM, we were encouraged to express who we are and produce art like this movie, that is very personal, and the message I’m receiving implicitly from the industry is the exact opposite.
Gary M. Kramer: Taking a cue from the film, who is the dramatic one in your relationship? And have you ever made a grand gesture?
Roshan Sethi: I’m dramatic in other ways. I’m not romantic. I am dramatic in the sense that I cry every day. Karan is not dramatic at all. He’s the most even keeled person, so emotionally regulated. I am all over the place.
[Karan laughs.]
Karan Soni: I confirm. [laughs]
Gary M. Kramer: I have to ask, any wedding plans?
Roshan Sethi: We are going to get married, but we are going to go to a courthouse.
© 2025 Gary M. Kramer
Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” He teaches Short Attention Span Cinema at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and is the moderator for Cinema Salon, a weekly film discussion group. Follow him on Twitter @garymkramer
Film
Published on March 27, 2025