Roshan Sethi practices as a doctor for part of the year and is a writer and director for the other part. The Indian American filmmaker’s latest offering, ‘A Nice Indian Boy’, had two sold-out screenings at the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) this week and continues to make waves with its sweet romantic tale.
“We took a lot of what we had been through with our own families and our own love story and blended it into what was already very much there,” Sethi says of the film, which is based on a play by Madhuri Shekar but also tied into the real-life romance of the director and the film’s lead Karan Soni.
“It was shot actually over the course of three weeks, which is very short for a movie. We only prepped for four weeks, which is also very short. So, we made it under very stressful, constrained circumstances, but it was a very joyful experience, nonetheless, and especially meaningful to me and Karan, since we were doing something we had never done before,” he shares.
Karan Soni’s character Naveen Gavaskar in the US-Canada venture plays a doctor – a nod to Sethi’s own day job, who undergoes a life-changing experience when he encounters Jay Kurundkar, played by Jonathan Groff. Their love story unfolds rather quickly on screen, but many complexities arise when Naveen has to introduce his white fiancé, who grew up in a similar Indian household based abroad, to his fairly traditional parents.
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Sethi notes: “We started out in a sort of middle point where he is out. We're not watching him come out to his family, but he is, in a way, gay in theory and not in practice. They've never had to acknowledge the reality of his sexuality because he's never brought a partner home to his family before.
“So, he's in a middle zone and that narrative approach, I inherited from the play and from the script, which very much takes that line, which I thought was very original and does feel more modern.”
After a struggle to get the film made, the director is hopeful that ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ will continue to connect with audiences worldwide after its sell-out screenings at LFF. While there is a tiny cameo by him in the film, Sethi dismisses any plans of taking a more active role in front of the camera with his next project.
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“I will never be in front of the camera. I'm very shy and I don't even like having my picture taken. In terms of the next project, I am working on a rom-com that hopefully we’ll begin the process of making next year, if we are lucky. But I am mostly just enjoying the process of sharing this movie, which we have worked really hard to bring it to life and it's always a pleasure to be with audiences when they watch it.”
*Info: ‘A Nice Indian Boy’