Roshan Sethi & Karan Soni on ‘A Nice Indian Boy,’ Big Gay Love, and Feel-Good Cinema

Roshan Sethi is winning the hearts of audiences and critics alike with ‘A Nice Indian Boy‘, a queer rom-com as tender as it is hilarious. Starring Karan Soni as Naveen with Jonathan Groff (as Jay), the film has been called an “antithesis” to America’s current chaos.

Soni plays Naveen with an almost disarming ease. He’s passive yet yearning, deadpan hilarious, and effortlessly relatable as every millennial fumbling through modern love and longing for connection.

A love letter to family, culture, and self discovery, A Nice Indian Boy will make you laugh, cry, and leave the theatre with a full heart and a lighter step.

Off-screen, Sethi and Soni are just as dynamic. The real-life couple radiate admiration for each other’s craft, seamlessly blending drama and comedy.

And while Sethi resists labels, he’s quietly breaking moulds with a rom-com that feels refreshingly original in an age of recycled tropes.

Star Observer spoke with Sethi and Soni about ‘A Nice Indian Boy’, comfort movies, big queer love, trials and tribulations of coming out and more.

Hi, nice to meet you guys! I’m such a fan of the movie, but I’m kind of upset since I fully expected a really cutesy rom com and ended up sobbing. So, thanks for that.

Karan Soni: Sorry, not sorry.

Roshan Sethi: That was the plan.

Let’s jump right in. What’s the first piece of media that you saw yourselves in?

R.S: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I saw it in high school, and it really felt like a movie about my family.

But these stories are pretty universal, and I’ve been shocked by how many non-Indian people responded to the movie.

K.S: For me, it was The OC and Seth Cohen. I was bullied a lot in high school at the time and the popular kids loved the show. He was a cool nerd, and suddenly they were like, you’re kind of the Indian Seth Cohen.

I became obsessed with California and when I was in India, I applied to all these schools there, and that brought me to LA, eventually. Made some big life decisions because of a TV show—but here we are.

Is there any other Bollywood inspired, or really any movie or TV show that you’d like to see from a queer lens?

R.S: Dostana. It’s already pretty gay-coded, but it has one of the best sequences I’ve ever seen where Kirron Kher becomes a witch doctor to try and cure what she perceives as her kids gayness.

And it’s in this unforgettable song sequence that I watch on repeat, because it makes me laugh so much. And it turns something that would otherwise be painful or harrowing into a very funny joke.

I think people look back on it and find it controversial but I see it as very much belonging to its time and doing something that was quite revolutionary and bold for then.

But now they should remake it with gays, you know, being gay.

K.S: My answer is a little bit more scandalous, but I’d like to see a Gangubai remake. It’s all the same but Gangubai is played by a ruthless bottom madam.

R.S: Oh my god, that’s so dark. [laughs]

You’ve said there’s no single “takeaway” for ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ but you do want audiences to feel good, to escape for a bit.

What’s your go-to feel-good movie when you need that escape?

R.S: My Big Fat Greek Wedding for sure. And I love Bridesmaids—I’ve watched it many times.

K.S: Mrs. Doubtfire. I’ve watched it so many times. I don’t know why but I laugh and cry every time. It was everything to me growing up.

Recently, I loved Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. I saw it twice in theatres, four times total. It recaptured my love because unfortunately it doesn’t seem like Bollywood is making as many love stories now, and that’s what I grew up on.

And then I love a rom-com. I rewatch them  constantly, even on planes. Crazy Rich Asians is a modern favourite, it’s so sneaky how well made it is.

I think sometimes it gets wrapped up as representation but it’s also just a very entertaining movie. John Chu is such an amazing director. No matter where it’s playing, I’ll finish the movie.

Was making ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ about reclaiming space for gays to love loudly?

R.S: Yeah, it did feel like that. We weren’t making a movie about hiding or being in the closet. It’s just a bunch of gays loving, dancing, families fighting, but then accepting and finding belonging.

But also, the goal was to entertain. People don’t necessarily want to go and be reminded of their harrowing coming out.

They want to feel the aspirational, hopeful things that are as much a part of the fabric of our lives, even if we don’t experience them all the time.

I was struck by how colourful the film is, something rare in films today. So many images feel distinct and vivid. And I guess it’s the Bollywood aesthetic, you’ve mentioned.

What drew you to that contrast of ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ starting out so ordinary and then slowly letting this aesthetic seep in?

R.S: To me, I think it’s because they’re [Naveen and Jay] the opposite ends of the spectrum of love itself.

Love is sometimes an insane, colourful, over-the-top thing but sometimes also very mundane and even prosaic—like taking out the trash for your partner or watching something bad with them and chatting about literally nothing.

The fact that love can contain both is something I thought would be interesting to explore.

The other thing is that Karan’s character is so cynical and repressed, but then has these vivid dreams that he’s probably too afraid to admit to, and the visuals bring them out.

Amy Vincent, our cinematographer, nailed the very bright, very high contrast look that I love.

‘A Nice Indian Boy’ isn’t a coming out story and as you said, coming out is more than just saying it, there’s trials and tribulations, as you put it.

What advice would you have for someone after coming out?

K.S: For me, personally, it’s about your expectations. I just thought when I come out, everything will be “fine” and it’ll all be fixed. But that’s really not the case.

There’s so many stages and steps because prior to saying those words, “I’m….” there’s so much anxiety that’s built up. And then oftentimes there’s a mixture of relief and happiness, but also sadness, and this feeling like, what’s next?

That’s what I thought was special about this movie, Naveen’s already out, but the question becomes, can he love openly? Can his family love the person he loves publicly—not just privately at home—in the most public way for an Indian family, which is at a Big Gay Indian Wedding.

If you see coming out as one step that solves everything, you might be disappointed. But if you understand it’s a process with more to it, you’re better prepared to be okay.

R.S: Yeah, I totally agree. My favourite line in the movie, which Karan improvised, is: “My parents know that I’m gay, but they’ve never seen me be gay.” I though that captures the complex “in-between” that isn’t just “I’m out” or “I’m in.”

K.S: Even in gay life, it’s such a thing. Some people think the minute they come out, they have to go to every club and sleep with a lot of people, and some just want to be in a monogamous relationship, wondering, “Am I not being gay enough if I commit?” It’s your own path.

And I think if you don’t have expectations of what it should look like, then you can be more true to yourself about what you want your life to be.

Originally a play by Madhuri Shekar, what did the screenwriting or directing process let you bring in that couldn’t have come through on stage?

R.S: Eric Randall, the screenwriter, did an amazing job converting it from a play into a movie. He made it quite visual in places too.

We added our own sort of life experiences, like making the main character a doctor, which wasn’t in the script originally—it was set in the tech world. Even the structure of the first date, we added things to reflect our experience as gay Indians.

But my favourite addition is a scene that Karan wrote entirely. I thought it would be funny to have a toxic Indian wedding planner, and Karan nailed it in half an hour. It really makes me laugh.

K.S: I think it makes many people very uncomfortable, but I just feel like the Indians get it.

R.S: When he says, “You know, love is love and money is money.” I think that’s such a perfectly Indian line.

Congratulations to both of you on finding your ’emotional third’ in Jonathan Groff! Did you give his character a vape to nerf the Jonathan Groff effect?

R.S: [laughs] Thanks. He, I think, started vaping because of this movie. But no, we gave him the vape because it was in the script.

K.S: Yeah. He wanted to practice, so he went to the bodega before we started filming and got one. And then I think he’s okay if we say this, but he started liking it a little bit too much [laughs].

And then we were like, what have we done to this sweet, sweet man? But he quit, and he’s totally fine now.

And finally, I love the bell motif in the film. It’s about seeing music when you see ‘the one’.  So what song plays in your head when you see each other?

K.S: I’m gonna say the Dharma logo. [laughs] It’s very dramatic but I see him approaching, and I’m like, “What does he want from me?” “What do I need to do now?” He’s coming with some wants and needs. I just imagine that.

R.S: I added that line in the script because I remember hearing a Bollywood song—the lyrics translated to the ringing in your heart or something.

I’m just obsessed with this idea that you look at someone and start hearing bells, it’s really funny.

K.S: I think most people just hear the Grindr notification. [shrugs] Just being honest.

[laughs] I appreciate that. Thank you so much for your time and congrats again. It’s clear the love behind ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ runs beyond the screen.

A Nice Indian Boy is out in select theatres now.