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Although the future of same-sex marriage feels unclear in the U.S., wedding bells are ringing at the theaters this spring.
Ahead of the release of A Nice Indian Boy, now playing in the U.S. and Canada (preceding Andrew Ahn’s The Wedding Banquet remake’s April 18 release), stars Jonathan Groff and Karan Soni spoke to Deadline about why Bollywood “feels so gay” and what made the film “so fucking special.”
Based on Madhuri Shekar’s play, A Nice Indian Boy stars Soni as Naveen Gavaskar, a gay Indian-American doctor who has never brought a boyfriend home, despite his parents and sister’s outward acceptance of him.
While at temple, Naveen sparks an unexpected romance with Jay Kurundkar (Groff), a white photographer who was raised by two adopted Indian parents. Following their meet-cute, the pair is in for quite the culture shock as Naveen’s new boyfriend teaches him to love every part of himself while they plan their big gay Indian wedding with his family.
“I always find it interesting that Indian-American people, because our culture is so rich, they’re always stuck between how American they were and how Indian they should be,” explained Soni. “And a lot of them, early in life, because of bullying or whatever from stories I’ve heard, would shun the Indian part of their culture to assimilate more. So, that’s how I always kind of looked at it for this character’s backstory, where it felt like such a unique spin on it, where it required the permission of this other person loving this culture so much for my character to understand what’s so special about it in many ways. And I think sometimes that’s what it takes.”
With Soni’s real-life partner Roshan Sethi in the director’s chair, Jonathan Groff was just as moved by the behind-the-scenes romance as his character’s love story.
“I loved 7 Days, the movie that Karan and Roshan made. And then, when I found out that they were a couple in real life, it just all felt really extra special,” said Groff, adding: “It didn’t just feel like another movie. There was something deeper, both the cultural meaning of what this was saying of a gay Indian wedding, and then also the added elements that it was Karan and Roshan, and they’re really together. Their love is in every frame of the movie. It was just really fucking special.”
Written for the screen by Eric Randall, the feature adaptation is steeped with Bollywood references, including an awkward Groff singalong in the street, a big wedding dance number and a sweet tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, a 1995 romantic-comedy that links the couple.
“I had never seen DDLJ, so the movie was a crash course for me and Indian culture in many ways,” said Groff. “Loved that movie. Feels so gay. Everything about Bollywood and Indian weddings feels so flamboyant, I should say, to me.”
Read our chat with A Nice Indian Boy stars Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff about the beautiful culture clash of their gay romantic-comedy.
DEADLINE: It’s such a fun, cute rom-com. Can you tell me about getting to have that rom-com moment but in such a validating non-traditional way?
KARAN SONI: The script felt so special when we got to read it, and it felt like the kind of movie that I could have never imagined when I started in Hollywood, in 2010, being made. But I was so happy that it was being made, and I think what was special about it was that it was all about joy. A lot of times, I think queer dramas or romances can feel a little heavier, cause they’re trying to do that, but this felt like it was just pure joy and that felt exciting to make something like that.
DEADLINE: And what was the casting process like? Did you have to do like chemistry reads?
SONI: No, Jonathan is offer only. [LAUGHS] When you reach Jonathan’s agent, the Frozen soundtrack just plays, and it’s supposed to subliminally tell you, “You wish you could hire him.” No, no, we didn’t have any of that. I was already cast, and then Jonathan was on the top of the list for everyone, and then he read it. It’s a rare Hollywood thing that happens where you have a dream person, and they read it, and then you get an email being like, “He read it and he loved it.” And then we had one dinner in New York about a year before we started doing it, myself, the director Roshan and Jonathan. And at the end of that dinner, Roshan and I, who are a couple, walked back and we were just like, “Well, it has to be him.” And then we were like, “What if he didn’t like us?” But we were really hoping, and then we didn’t really see Jonathan again until we started filming. Jonathan was on Doctor Who, and he came straight from that show to our movie. We’d already been filming for a few days, and then you were thrown right in the middle of—the first scene you did was the “meet the parents’ scene, which was like a five-page scene with all these new faces. And we went right into shooting that whole day, and then that was it. It was off to the races.
DEADLINE: Jonathan, what stood out for you?
JONATHAN GROFF: Reading the script, it felt really special, just the culture clash and the gay elements in the Indian wedding. It felt like a rom-com, but it also felt really family-related, that it was a love story about these two meeting, but sort of this essential piece about becoming a part of somebody’s family and the complicated ways that they accept or don’t accept you. And then I loved 7 Days, the movie that Karan and Roshan made. And then, when I found out that they were a couple in real life, it just all felt really extra special. And being there, we shot it really fast, it was 18 days … It didn’t just feel like another movie. There was something deeper, both the cultural meaning of what this was saying of a gay Indian wedding, and then also the added elements that it was Karan and Roshan, and they’re really together. Their love is in every frame of the movie. It was just really fucking special.
DEADLINE: I love the element of him falling in love with someone who makes him fall in love with his own culture. Can you tell me a little bit about that, but also the pressure for queer people to create their own traditions?
SONI: I think that was such an interesting part of the script. I grew up in India, so I came to America when I was 18. So, I was very in touch with the parts of Indian culture that I loved and then the parts that I was happy to leave behind, living in another country. But I always find it interesting that Indian-American people, because our culture is so rich, they’re always stuck between how American they were and how Indian they should be. And a lot of them, early in life, because of bullying or whatever from stories I’ve heard, would shun the Indian part of their culture to assimilate more. So, that’s how I always kind of looked at it for this character’s backstory, where it felt like such a unique spin on it, where it required the permission of this other person loving this culture so much for my character to understand what’s so special about it in many ways. And I think sometimes that’s what it takes, it takes externally people being OK with stuff for you to feel like—it’s happening with food now so much, because I have so many Indian-American friends who are like, “Indian food was not cool, and it was called smelly and all this stuff, and now people are lining up for Michelin-star Indian restaurants.” It’s just such an interesting thing when the culture accepts it and when it doesn’t, and that sometimes is the permission that’s required for you to feel comfortable. But all of that comes originally from the play, and what the play was trying to do was trying to show my character as this reserved person who actually isn’t embracing everything about himself, and this other person who wishes they could be a part of this culture and sees only the beauty in it and everything in it, and how when they come together, it helps my character sort of do that. So, we really just took that from the play and hoped that it would work on the screen as well.
DEADLINE: And I loved all of the performances that you did, from Jonathan awkwardly singing in the street to your big grand gesture, recreating DDLJ, and then of course the big Bollywood family dance number. Tell me about putting all those together.
SONI: That was something that we were hoping to do with this movie, which was—we’ve heard a lot of people, our friends who only watch Hollywood movies being like, :I really wanna watch something in Bollywood.” And then, we play it for them, and it’s almost too jarring, the differences, and it’s long, and they’re like, “What’s going on?” And they’re a little bit confused, and it feels like they’re not able to finish the movie or something. So, we were like, “What’s the halfway point where we can take some of the things that we love from those movies, the big romantic gestures, the larger-than-life sort of family, the dance, all that stuff, and put that in a movie that very much feels like a Hollywood movie, but it can give you some of the flavors of what that world is like?” So, it all sort of came from wanting this movie to be sort of an amalgamation. And then, Bollywood is sort of a theme throughout the movie too, because the character that I play grew up watching those movies and these big Indian weddings that never showed gay people in them falling in love. And so, what does that feel like for you to never see yourself in these stories? This movie, in a meta way, is the first version of that for what will be a lot of brown queer people. So there was like a lot of all of that jumbled up in the soup.
DEADLINE: And Jonathan, what was that like for you?
GROFF: I had never seen DDLJ, so the movie was a crash course for me and Indian culture in many ways. Loved that movie. Feels so gay. Everything about Bollywood and Indian weddings feels so flamboyant, I should say, to me. And singing that song on the street, I felt safe. I felt safe the whole time because Roshan and Karan were there, and they could help me with the pronunciations of the things that I was messing up, so I felt covered. There’s something in the heart-on-the-sleeve nature of that character, Jay, that I really relate to, that was almost embarrassing when I watched the movie the first time. ‘Cause it is how I am, kind of. I felt myself in it when I was doing it, but to watch it, at least the first time, was like a little embarrassing.
SONI: No, but you can’t be embarrassed because that’s the thing that people find endearing about the character, and actually people are mad at me because they’re like, “Why can’t you embrace this guy who just wants to love you? “So, I’m the problem, not you.
GROFF: You’re not the problem. It’s awkward, someone singing on the street. But I have sung on the street in life. It’s confronting, but not in a bad way, I guess.
