A Nice Indian Boy' Opens in Theaters This Weekend

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary: "A Nice Indian Boy' Opens in Theaters This Weekend"

All Of It, hosted by Alison Stewart on WNYC, delves into the vibrant landscape of cultural cinema with the premiere of the romantic comedy "A Nice Indian Boy." This episode features an insightful conversation with the film's director, Roshan Sethi, and actors Karan Soni and Zarnagar Garg. The discussion explores the movie's themes, cultural nuances, comedic elements, and its resonance with diverse audiences.

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Introduction to "A Nice Indian Boy"

Alison Stewart opens the episode by introducing "A Nice Indian Boy," highlighting its status as a New York Times Critics' Pick and a refreshing addition to the romantic comedy (rom-com) genre. The film follows Naveen (Karan Soni), a shy and introverted Indian American doctor, who meets Jay (Jonathan Groff), a white freelance photographer, at a Hindu temple. Their blossoming relationship challenges Naveen's traditional Indian upbringing and his hesitance to introduce Jay to his conservative family.

Alison Stewart [00:37]: "Naveen is a shy, introverted Indian American doctor... he’s still a little hesitant to introduce them to his first serious boyfriend who is white, having been adopted by Indian parents."

A New York Times review commends the film for its exploration of love, cultural understanding, and personal triumphs.

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Director Roshan Sethi on Adaptation from Play to Film

Roshan Sethi shares the journey of adapting "A Nice Indian Boy" from a play written by Madhuri Shaker to its cinematic form, scripted by Eric Randall in 2020.

Roshan Sethi [02:35]: "It expands the play naturally and gives it scope. It also bookends the play with two weddings... without spoiling too much about whose weddings those are."

Sethi emphasizes the structural choices in the film, such as beginning and ending with Indian weddings, to frame the narrative and underscore cultural themes.

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Actor Karan Soni on Embracing the Rom-Com Genre

Karan Soni discusses his passion for rom-coms, drawing parallels between Bollywood's epic romances and the Hollywood adaptation in the film.

Karan Soni [02:55]: "It's like an homage to Bollywood but in a very Hollywood movie. It kind of combines both those worlds, I think, in a very unique way."

Soni reflects on the personal significance of the genre, expressing excitement about portraying Naveen and contributing to a story that bridges cultural cinematic traditions.

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Cultural Taboos in Dating: Insights from Zarnagar Garg

Zarnagar Garg explores the taboos and challenges faced by individuals from immigrant families when dating outside their cultural or racial backgrounds.

Zarnagar Garg [07:14]: "What are the taboos that come around dating preferences within immigrant families?"

She elaborates on the cultural shock and lack of preparedness many Indian parents experience when their children date someone from a different background, highlighting the film's relevance in portraying these dynamics.

Karan Soni [07:14]: "Indian parents, myself included, like, we want the mix, but we just don't know what we're doing."

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Crafting Comedy in "A Nice Indian Boy"

The conversation shifts to the comedic elements of the film, with Director Sethi emphasizing the importance of casting inherently funny individuals to elevate the humor beyond the script.

Roshan Sethi [16:05]: "You have to cast funny people because lines, oddly enough, and dialogue often is not funny... audiences feel like they're more resistant than ever."

Both actors, Karan and Zarnagar, discuss how their backgrounds in stand-up and improv comedy contributed to their performances, allowing for natural comedic timing and improvisation that enhanced the film's humor.

Karan Soni [17:31]: "It gives you an intuitive feel for the timing... but I've aligned myself with these two geniuses so I should not reinvent the wheel here and just listen to whatever they're saying."

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The Filmmaking Process and Casting Choices

The episode delves into the casting decisions, particularly the inclusion of Jonathan Groff as Jay, who, despite not being initially familiar with the Indian culture portrayed, brings authenticity and charm to his role.

Roshan Sethi [06:27]: "We just all loved him... and then we found Zarnagar, and the rest is history."

Sethi highlights the serendipitous nature of casting and the organic chemistry that contributed to the film's success.

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The Movie’s Universal Appeal and Audience Impact

Karan Soni reflects on the film's universal themes that transcend cultural specifics, making it relatable to a broad audience.

Karan Soni [12:22]: "Any human being with human relationships, you're gonna get in there and just feel all the fields that we wrote as A Nice Indian Boy."

Director Sethi shares audience reactions, noting the diverse and heartfelt responses from viewers across different backgrounds, and emphasizing the communal experience of watching comedies in theaters.

Roshan Sethi [17:20]: "When you go to the theater and you look at each other and you feel each other and you laugh together, that's literally why we're alive."

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Authenticity and Family Dynamics in the Movie

The discussion touches on the authentic portrayal of family dynamics, highlighting the nuanced characters of Naveen's parents who defy stereotypical representations.

Karan Soni [24:43]: "The main character... has to really go on this journey. And interestingly, it takes Jonathan's character for me to kind of come out of my shell."

The film portrays a family filled with love, fears, and doubts, showcasing the complexities of immigrant family relationships and the journey toward mutual understanding and acceptance.

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Conclusion: The Significance of "A Nice Indian Boy" in Today's Rom-Com Landscape

In wrapping up, the guests reflect on the significance of the film amid the contemporary rom-com landscape, emphasizing the need for joy, escape, and shared human experiences that cinema uniquely provides.

Roshan Sethi [23:54]: "People want an experience of joy and escape and fun... that's a really special and actually almost rare thing to experience now and find."

The episode underscores "A Nice Indian Boy" as not just a romantic story but a cultural bridge that fosters understanding, acceptance, and laughter, resonating deeply with audiences and enriching the rom-com genre.

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Notable Quotes:

• Alison Stewart [00:37]: Introduction to Naveen and Jay's relationship.
• Roshan Sethi [02:35]: On adapting the play to film and structural choices.
• Karan Soni [02:55]: Love for rom-coms and homage to Bollywood.
• Zarnagar Garg [07:14]: Discussing cultural taboos in immigrant families.
• Roshan Sethi [16:05]: Importance of casting funny people for comedy.
• Roshan Sethi [17:20]: The communal experience of laughter in theaters.
• Karan Soni [12:22]: Universal themes in the film.
• Roshan Sethi [23:54]: The film's role in providing joy and escape.

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Conclusion

This episode of All Of It offers a comprehensive exploration of "A Nice Indian Boy," highlighting its cultural significance, comedic brilliance, and universal appeal. Through engaging conversations with the director and cast, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the film's creation, themes, and impact, making it a must-watch for enthusiasts of culturally nuanced romantic comedies.

Transcript

[Alison Stewart]

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[Ira Flatow]

Listener Supported WNYC Studios.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. The movie A Nice Indian Boy opened over the weekend and it was a New York Times critics pick. It is a welcome return of the rom Com. Naveen, a shy, introverted Indian American doctor, meets the person of his dreams at a Hindu temple. This after several weddings and promises that his special day would come soon. He meets Jay, the person of his dreams, a freelance photographer. Their courtship brings out a different side of Naveen. One that's happier, more carefree. And even though Naveen is already out to his traditional Indian American family, he's still a little hesitant to introduce them to his first serious boyfriend who is white, having been adopted by Indian parents. A New York Times review says. In this vibrant addition to cinema's romantic landscape, love isn't the only winner. Cultural understanding and the freedom to choose. Choose your own path. Triumph as well. A Nice Indian Boy is playing in select theaters now. The film's director, Roshan Sethi. Did I get it right, Rashan?

[Roshan Sethi]

Yes, you did. Yeah.

[Alison Stewart]

Yes. Nice to meet you.

[Roshan Sethi]

So nice to meet you. Thank you for having us.

[Alison Stewart]

Also joining us are the actor who plays Naveen, Karan Soni. Hi Karan.

[Karan Soni]

Hi.

[Alison Stewart]

And also actor and comedian Zarnagar Garg. Hi Zara.

[Karan Soni]

Hi. Namaste. Thank you for having me.

[Alison Stewart]

So happy to have all of you Russian. This is built was built on around a play. When did you first hear about the play A Nice Indian Boy?

[Roshan Sethi]

Well, the play's been performed since 2014, but I only heard of it after it was adapted into a script by a company called Levantine Films in 2020. So it took six years for it to reach me and then at that point I was approached to direct it with Current and Star at around the same time.

[Alison Stewart]

So the film was adapted by. I think it's Eric Randall, correct?

[Roshan Sethi]

Yeah, exactly. Really talented writer. And the play was written by Madhuri Shaker.

[Alison Stewart]

So what was interesting about the adaptation of Eric Randall's play?

[Roshan Sethi]

It expands the play naturally and gives it scope. It also bookends the play with two weddings. So it begins with an Indian wedding and it ends with an Indian wedding. Without spoiling too much about whose weddings those are. And why it's structured that way.

[Alison Stewart]

Zahren, you are booked and busy with your standup career. So what interested you about this role?

[Karan Soni]

It was not the money. No, it was working with these guys. Look at these guys. Look at how amazing and adorable. I knew that whatever they did, it's going to be outstanding. And I just want to say our director Roshan Sethi is also a cancer surgeon. So I mean, if you're going to have somebody give you directions, you want a nice Indian doctor. Let me tell you that if he, if he's equipped to do that, he's definitely ready to take me onto a big screen.

[Roshan Sethi]

Yeah, it was a medical set, that's for sure.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, Karm, what was your opinion of rom coms?

[Ira Flatow]

I love rom coms. I actually grew up in India and I only moved to America when I was 18 to go to college. So I watched a lot of Bollywood, which. A lot of Bollywood. We don't use the word rom com, but it's just epic romances. Especially at the time when I was growing up so big, sort of like Bollywood song and dance romance musicals. And so I loved love stories. And then it was so exciting to make this movie because in many ways this movie is sort of like an homage to Bollywood but in a very Hollywood movie. It kind of combines both those worlds, I think, in a very unique way. So it felt like this very eerie thing where as a kid you've like watched these movies and then like you're a grown adult and you're like in one. And it was very kind of cool and hard to wrap my head around sometimes.

[Alison Stewart]

Karn, you play this sort of introverted, a little bit awkward doctor. How do we get a sense of who Naveen is?

[Ira Flatow]

I'm just playing Rashan because Rashan and I are also dating. And when we began dating, actually Rashan and I worked a little bit on the script as well. And one of the first changes Rashan wanted to make was to make the character a doctor. Originally he was a tech worker. And Rashan often says that medicine is an easy profession to be closeted in or to not have your entire personality come out because people don't really want to know what their doctor's personal feelings are. So that really actually helped me with the character because it's. The character starts off very shy and then by the end of the movie sort of loving openly and being his full self. So his profession almost like lets him kind of hide in a way. And when Roshan and I first began dating, he was quite awkward. And shy with me. Our first date was four and a half hours. I would say that's a good first date. Lengthwise. It ended with him wanting to shake my hand from, like, five feet apart, as if I had some infectious disease. Disease. And for the first year or so of dating, he never really showed much emotion and personality. What does it say about me that I stuck around? Let's not focus on that part. But it was really fun for me because I was able to kind of channel a version of him. There's, like, a very interesting first date scene in this movie. And so much of what I'm playing is stealing from Rashin directly.

[Roshan Sethi]

Yeah. And our first date current was a lot like Jonathan Groff's character, actually, in that he was effusive and overflowing with love. On our first date, he recapped the Bollywood movie that I had seen. And he recapped it in such detail that by the end, he had moved himself to weeping. He was crying at the recap of the Bollywood movie of Kalo Naho. And I was just sitting there robotically, frozen, giving him nothing as he moved himself to tears with just the memories of a Bollywood movie.

[Alison Stewart]

Well, first of all, I have to ask, are you in the same house in different rooms?

[Roshan Sethi]

We are.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, boy. I can't wait to hear this conversation after we go off the air.

[Karan Soni]

We are.

[Roshan Sethi]

Yeah. I go. Yeah. I go upstairs. He goes down.

[Alison Stewart]

Jonathan Groff plays the other romantic lead in this book, Russian. Why was he the right fit?

[Roshan Sethi]

We just all loved him. He's like, the number one gay in the country. And we just. We went to him not knowing him at all. He had seen our first movie, Seven Days, and he really liked it. And Curran is the lead of Seven Days. So the first thing he said to me on the phone was, could. Could that guy in Seven Days play gay? And I was like, he definitely could play gay because he is gay with me. We're gay. So Jonathan was on board after that, basically. And then we found Zarna, and the rest is history.

[Alison Stewart]

Zarna, you've done standup in your standup act about bringing home a white boyfriend, Your daughter bringing home a white boyfriend. Can you tell us what are the taboos that come around dating preferences within immigrant families?

[Karan Soni]

I mean, certainly, like, having a different culture is, like, a little bit of a shock. Cause you don't know. And I find that Indian parents, myself included, like, we want the mix, but we just don't know what we're doing. We honestly don't know. We've lived These isolated lives for so many years, decades even. I have friends. My sister has lived in America almost 50 years. But we live within the Indian communities and we don't know. Suddenly when somebody is in an intimate part of our life, like staying in our house and waking up with us and all, we get a little frazzled. But we're learning. And what better way to learn than to have Jonathan Groff be that guy to be your son in law. I mean, the most easy guy to love and get along with.

[Alison Stewart]

Karen, your character is just so afraid to bring home Jay to his family. Why is he so afraid?

[Ira Flatow]

I think what this movie deals with is so interesting. So it's not a coming out story, but it's really what happens afterwards. And I'm obviously gay myself with Russian. I came out when I was 19, I'm 36 now. And so it's been like a while since like that moment. But I remember prior to coming out I felt like the minute I come out it would be like a light switch, everything would be healed and fixed and all this anxiety and all these like self hatred thoughts I had would all go away. But that's not what happened. And I felt in my experience it's gradual coming out constantly in life. And one big coming out is introducing the person you're dating to your family. Because initially for a short amount of time, but my family didn't take it well when I came out to them. So I just remember being like, I don't want to retraumatize them with this new thing that they have to get accustomed to. But it's interesting because it's not even a queer thing. I find I know so many people, straight friends who are dating people that they feel like their parents wouldn't approve of and they're lying to them about their relationship. In America and India, it's like so many friends and that their kids have a whole life romantic life outside of what their parents think they're doing. And I think it's just this classic thing of what expectations are for family and what ends up being the reality of who your child is and what their life is. And what's so interesting about the play in this movie is that, you know, on the surface they want me to date a nice Indian boy. But Jonathan's character, because he grew up with Indian parents, is maybe the most Indian character in the entire movie. So it bodes this question like, what are you really judging and where does your prejudice begin and end? And it's such an interesting sort of play on all of those things, yeah, Roshana.

[Alison Stewart]

To ask about Jonathan playing the love interest because in the movie he's a white kid adopted by Indian parents. So I was curious what your conversations were like with Jonathan. Jonathan. So this could feel real and not just a plot device.

[Roshan Sethi]

Honestly, there were no conversations. He was coming from Doctor who and we had no time to chat before he arrived on set. So I didn't give him like an upload on being Indian. And there's a scene in the movie, as you know, where he has to sing a Hindi song that I didn't prepare him for in any way. And he just arrived having figured it all out on his own by assimilation. And it was kind of incredible. It proves the, you know, there's one of the questions the movie asks is what is culture? Because, for example, I'm Indian, but I'm raised in Canada and my connection to being Indian is secondhand in a way. I have an immigrant mother, but I myself have barely been to India. Karan, on the other hand, is born and raised in New Delhi, left when he was 18, and then made the rest of his life in America. And Zarna is also born and raised in India, left when she was, I think older than 18. So we're all approaching this thing of being Indian in different ways. And it almost proves the lie. I, when I speak Hindi, I sound worse than Karin's white brother in law who is learning Hindi on Duolingo. So it's such a, it's such a tricky thing to, to know, like what it, what is it to be Indian? We've gotten so obsessed with identity politics in a lot of ways. One of the downsides of that is we've forgotten that we're all interested in each other and we're all connected to each other in ways that are sometimes surprising.

[Alison Stewart]

That's interesting.

[Ira Flatow]

Yeah. I would say Los Angeles yoga teachers can speak Hindi better than Russian.

[Roshan Sethi]

Oh, absolutely. Absolute.

[Alison Stewart]

That's such an interesting point, Zarna, is that you all bring a different experience to this project. What of your experience were you able to bring?

[Karan Soni]

Just the mom life. I don't think this is an Indian mom story. An Indian mom worry. It's a mom story and a mom worry. Every mother is worried about the same thing about their kids. And every mother has the same ambitions and aspirations, give or take, you know. So I think that my, in my standup comedy is the audience is very global. It's not just Indian because every mother, every daughter in law, every mother in law sees something of her and it feels like the same thing in this movie. I don't think you have to be Indian. I don't think you have to be anything specific to enjoy this movie. Any human being with human relationships, you're gonna get in there and just feel all the fields that we wrote as A Nice Indian boy.

[Roshan Sethi]

The reaction is so universal. If you go on letterboxd or Rotten Tomatoes audience section, and people all have the same reaction, no matter who they are. And you can look at their user IDs and see that they really run the gamut. The movie actually tested highest among white women, which I think even more than among Indians, because we are all interested in each other, as I said before. And that's one of the beautiful things that the experience of making the movie has illustrated to us.

[Alison Stewart]

We're talking about the new film A Nice Indian Boy. We'll have more after a quick break. This is all of it. This is all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. We are talking about the new romantic comedy A Nice Indian Boy. An introverted doctor introduces his family to his white artist boyfriend. We're speaking with the Karen Soni and Zarna Gregg, as well as director Rashan Sethi. Zarna, tell us a little bit about this family. What do you think is the ethos of being in the family that this movie is situated around?

[Karan Soni]

This family is every American family. It's full of love, but it's full of complications. There are a lot of contradictions. The husband is irritating as hell, which many, many people in the country will relate to. The mom is trying to balance everybody's feelings, keep the son happy, the daughter happy, the husband, whatever. Just keep him out of everybody's way, which is very realistic. If you have a family with kids and all, sometimes that's the answer. Please go sit in the other room. So I think this family is every family. It's every American family for sure. And it's a family that's full of love, but also full of fears and doubts.

[Alison Stewart]

I think generational differences, too, is a big part of that.

[Karan Soni]

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

[Alison Stewart]

Karen, early in the film, your mom is trying to. She's trying to recount the plot of Milk to you while you're on the phone, while you're at the job. Just really funny thinking about it. What is he thinking in that moment as his mother is trying to reach out to him in a very odd way.

[Ira Flatow]

Yeah, I think it's such an interesting thing because actually, even though this was in the play, my real life mom is very much like this. She has Taken it upon herself. After the very short initial feeling of her not feeling supportive, she's now the most supportive mom. And she has made herself the person in her neighborhood who reaches out and helps people. And often it comes from the right place. But of course. And I'm the problematic person in this situation, I'm cringing at her methods. So for instance, lives in Georgia, and she'll go up to random Indian parents and be like, your child is gay. I just know it. When they decide to come out, you let me know. It's gonna be really hard, but I will help you. And these parents are like, I'm sorry, what? And then she's like, I just told them their child's gonna be gay. And I was like, oh, my God. And so. But the intention of it is so pure, which is that she wants to spread love and support and she wants to do good. And that's the character Zarna's playing. But it's always so interesting because as a child, your first reaction always when your parents do anything like that, ends up being to be cringed. But in reality, how lucky am I and how lucky is the character to have a mom like that?

[Alison Stewart]

As people can understand, this is a comedy. This has got some laugh out loud moments. Russian, what do you. What's important, first of all, in directing a comedy and what do you know now is important about directing a comedy?

[Roshan Sethi]

Well, I. The lesson I learned is in some ways something that I knew before, but just that has been emphasized by the making of this movie, which is that you have to cast funny people because lines, oddly enough, and dialogue often is not funny. You can get audiences to smile, but it's very, very hard to get them to laugh out loud. Audiences feel like they're more resistant than ever, and they will often, however, laugh for even a mediocre line if it comes from someone who just feels funny. Like, Zarna just feels funny no matter what she does or says. And then that's added by all the brilliant things that she says. That's true of all the greats. Tina, Amy, like Kristen Wiig. These are people who are just Maya Rudolph. These are people who are just funny. And we respond to that energy and ker like that as well. So it was amazing watching them. Both K and Zarna improvised many of the funniest lines in this movie. The recap, for example, that you just described, I thought it was funny if Zarna recapped milk and Karin wrote that entire monologue and then Zarna read it to him in character, and then Zarna Came up with my favorite lines in the movie, which I won't ruin because we're on the radio. But my absolute favorite joke in the movie when they first come home and are sitting in the living room watching gay tv came from Zarna for the father to deliver. So you just have to cast people like these two who are such comedic geniuses.

[Alison Stewart]

Zarna. Yeah. You have a background in standup, so does Karan. Ask Zarna go first. How did this help you in making this film? Your background in stand up comedy?

[Karan Soni]

I think it gives you an intuitive feel for the timing. Where to pause, where to punctuate for a laugh, where to. I just. At least that's why in hindsight I feel like I could do what I did. This is my first movie ever. I didn't know really what I was doing. My whole plan was to listen to whatever Roshan says because I was like, I don't know what I'm doing. But I've aligned myself with these two geniuses so I should not reinvent the wheel here and just listen to whatever they're saying. But even as they are giving directions, some of the lines have to be delivered in a way that makes sense to your brain. But because I'm on a stage practically every night of my life since the last six years, I think intuitively I just knew where to pause and how fast to go with the words. But other than that, I take no credit for this performance. It's all Roshan and Karan.

[Roshan Sethi]

No, no, no, no, no, not at all.

[Alison Stewart]

Karin, how about for you in terms of standup?

[Ira Flatow]

Yeah, I never actually ended up doing stand up. I was so scared of it. But the live comedy I did always was improv. And I went to USC in la. And then eventually when I got my first small commercial agent, they told everyone to go to UCB Upright Citizens Brigade, which is a the in New York, but is was popular. Is popular in LA too. And I would say my theory is you cannot teach someone to be funny or teach someone timing, but you can hone what makes it work. So the thing I learned at UCB was just to listen and to be grounded. No matter how crazy the situation is. You want to be within the world that has been set, the rules that have been set in the scene. Otherwise the scene just goes off the rails. So those skills, I feel I took over to film acting as well, which is always to be in the story and make sure the comedy and improv is coming from what the character would really do versus me just making a joke to make the crew laugh. But that's something I've definitely learned through ucb. The. Yes. And of it all Russian.

[Alison Stewart]

Do you believe that? That you can't really teach somebody to be funny?

[Roshan Sethi]

Yeah, I mean, nobody can teach me, for example. But the. That's why you just have to cast funny people. There's no way around it. People don't understand how critical acting is to comedy. It's actually not the writing, it's the acting more than it is anything else to make people laugh out loud. And in editing this movie with Stephanie Cosnacho, the movie's editor, it's like the. It takes such timing and delivery to get people to feel happy enough to actually laugh out loud. But when you get an audience to laugh out loud, it's the most miraculous thing in the world, and it's the most human thing. It's amazing watching people laugh because they always look at each other. That's the most interesting thing about laughter. Because as humans, we're meant to. The only reason we laugh is for tribal bonding. That's the reason you should be seeing comedies in theaters, because you laughing at home alone is not only pathetic, it's also not useful biologically.

[Ira Flatow]

But you laughing, oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. This is how Russian directs. This is how Russian directs.

[Roshan Sethi]

What happens when a doctor reacts.

[Ira Flatow]

Yeah, he would come up to us and be like, that one was pathetic. No, I do not. We kept going until we got there.

[Roshan Sethi]

Listen, nobody is more pathetic than me. But honestly, like, literally, nobody is more pathetic than me. You can ask current, but when you go to the theater and you look at each other and you feel each other and you laugh together, that's literally why we're alive. As crazy as that sounds and as extreme as that sounds. And when you experience it, like on something like Bridesmaids, for example, just to take an example of a movie that had people roaring in the theaters, it really is the most magical thing in the world.

[Alison Stewart]

Zarna, I'm surprised you said this is your first movie.

[Karan Soni]

It is my first movie. That's right. And I didn't even wanna do this one. The truth is that I actually declined this one because I love these guys so much that I wanted their movie to be a big hit. I was like, go hire somebody who's really good and knows what they're doing and, you know, is experienced at that level. And they were very insistent that this was the right role for me. And in fact, I remember Roshan is like, zarna, this is the role of a mother who's disappointed in her husband and kids. And I said, I'm in. I'm in. No one can play that role better than me. Let's go.

[Ira Flatow]

I think your words were, not even Meryl Streep could play better.

[Karan Soni]

I was like, meryl Streep, sit down. I had originally. Am I allowed to say that? I had originally suggested, like, maybe Meryl Streep needs a job. Like, put her in a tanning booth and let her do this.

[Roshan Sethi]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Meryl Tanning.

[Karan Soni]

But I know I wanted the best possible mother for this. Look at these guys. You want the story of this movie. Like in a world filled with hatred, anger, and everybody is wanting to rip each other to shreds over the most minuscule things, these guys come up with a project that is so full of love and hope. I mean, you talked about laugh out loud moments. I have now, since the movie release, watched a movie at least 10 different times in 10 different theaters and different cities as I've been touring even 11pm show, I'll pop up just to see what's going on. The amount of people that are holding each other's hands and just silently sobbing along with the movie or laughing so hard that they're crying. It's like I don't think I've experienced anything like this in decades. This is such a once in a lifetime experience. So I didn't want to be the weakest link in this movie, which is why I was hesitant to act in.

[Alison Stewart]

Were you scared? Were you scared to be alone?

[Karan Soni]

The only reason I wasn't scared is because I trusted these guys. I really psyched myself into believing that if they think I can do it, I can do it. But on my own, I would have never dared to imagine that this is a role for me. It's a very, very good part. It's like a very integral part of the story. The mother plays a big role in the beginning and in the end, it's not one of the side roles where the mom is just cooking in the background. The mom is really actively. There are a lot of movies where you don't even know what the mom's doing.

[Roshan Sethi]

You don't cook at all in this movie?

[Karan Soni]

Not at all. In fact, dad cooks.

[Roshan Sethi]

He's cooking.

[Ira Flatow]

Dad is cooking.

[Alison Stewart]

Dad's cooking in the movie.

[Karan Soni]

Well, let dad do something because he's otherwise irritated.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah.

[Roshan Sethi]

What else would he be doing?

[Alison Stewart]

Rashan, why do you think this. Where does this movie fit into today's landscape of the rom com?

[Roshan Sethi]

I think people want an Experience of joy and escape and fun. And it's really, really hard to find that because when you watch things at home alone, you're pausing, you're looking at your phone, you're often not with other people. Sometimes you are with other people. But when you go to a theater, your attention is demanded and you laugh and hopefully cry with other people and you feel the togetherness of being human. That's a really special and actually almost rare thing to experience now and find. So that's the thing I'm most interested in this adding to the current theatrical experience because there is obviously a lot out there, but there's very little, I feel, that offers this experience, which hopefully doesn't sound immodest, but if you read Letterboxd and the Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews, you'll see that I'm not making it up because I'm a very blunt doctor and I would never make it up.

[Alison Stewart]

Karan, what does this movie say about being one's authentic self?

[Ira Flatow]

Oh, wow. I think it's what it says is that it's not always easy. I think the main character, my character, has to really go on this journey. And interestingly, it takes Jonathan's character for me to kind of come out of my shell. And I think Jonathan's character is maybe the most authentic character in the movie. And it's interesting how infectious his sort of energy is. And it leads to a lot of us kind of dealing with our stuff. But specifically in Indian culture, there's so much shame and so much hiding of who you are. And this family has their secrets and a lot of that stuff and how kind of toxic and bad it can be over time. Like, both the children in the movie have a completely different idea of what the parents relationship is, but they've never spoken to them directly about anything. And it isn't until the end that they understand their parents better than they ever did. And what's so interesting about the movie is you go into it and I think in the beginning a lot of people think the parents are going to be these stereotypical maybe characters that you've seen before who are sort of like, you know, kind of loveless and hanging out for like, comedic relief. And by the end of the movie, they're almost the most nuanced people. And it's this interesting flip the movie does, which is that you go into it being like, oh, I think I know these characters. And by the end you're crying and wanting the love of the parents, like this deep, long love that they've had that's been quiet and not showy and I think all of that kind of comes out in the movie.

[Alison Stewart]

The name of the movie is a Nice Indian Boy. I've been speaking with Karan Soni Zarnagarg and Roshan Sethi. So nice to meet all of you.

[Roshan Sethi]

So nice to meet you. Thank you for having us.

[Karan Soni]

So nice to meet you. Thank you for having us.

[Alison Stewart]

Okay, go have a conversation now in the same house now that we're done.

[Ira Flatow]

This is Ira Flato, host of Science Friday. For over 30 years, the science Friday team has been reporting high quality science and technology news, making science fun for curious people by covering everything from the outer reaches of space to the rapidly changing world of AI to the tiniest microbes in our bodies. Audiences trust our show because they know we're driven by a mission to inform and serve listeners first and foremost with important news they won't get anywhere else. And our sponsors benefit from that halo effect. For more information on becoming a sponsor, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.