Keeping up with its mandate to provide exclusive early access to the most anticipated films of the year, the Calgary International Film Festival’s FIRST LOOK series hosted the Canadian Premiere of A Nice Indian Boy, directed by one-time Calgarian Roshan Sethi.
A traditional rom-com with a queer twist, A Nice Indian Boy tells the story of Naveen (Karan Soni), an Indian-American Doctor who falls for a white-orphan-artist Jay (Jonathan Groff). The couple must contend with Naveen’s traditional Indian family while they navigate the planning of the Indian wedding of their dreams.
Adapted from the 2014 play of the same name by Madhuri Shekar, Sethi’s elevator pitch explains it as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding – but it’s Indian and it’s gay.” A crowd favourite at SXSW in 2024, the film hits all the right notes that a rom com should, and they resonate with an endearing sincerity.
Director Sethi was born and raised in the southwest of Calgary to Indian immigrant parents, who came to Calgary from London UK for his father’s job as a nuclear physicist. His mother went on to practice medicine in Calgary as a primary care doctor. Following in the footsteps of his mother, Sethi recalls a childhood in Calgary spent preparing for medical school: working at the Tom Baker Cancer Center, the Foothills Hospital, and also his mother’s clinic in the Northeast. “I did nothing even remotely artistic other than reading books” recalls Sethi. Yet his artistic output as a writer indicates that this was time well spent.
Sethi began writing creatively while also studying medicine at Harvard Medical. He got his first professional writing credits on the CBS medical drama Code Black in 2015, then went on to become a co-creator of Fox’s medical drama The Resident, in 2019. In 2021, his directorial debut 7 Days premiered at Tribeca, a film he co-wrote with his real life partner and star of A Nice Indian Boy Karan Soni.
Originally born in New Delhi, India, Soni moved to the United States to study at the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts and experienced his breakout role in Deadpool. Sethi and Soni fisrt met on the dating app Raya, and their first collaboration 7 Days also cast Soni as the lead. 7 Days, shot over 8 days during COVID, won Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards in 2021 for its depiction of Indians in America navigating the fraught cultural subject that is Marriage in India.
A Nice Indian Boy engages with similar introspection towards the practice of marriage in Indian culture, but with a queer twist. The film also stars Zarna Garg, Indian-American stand-up sensation, as Naveen’s mom. After spending 16 years as a stay-at-home-mom, Garg blew up on TikTok, when she finally heeded the advice of her children to get on stage. Well-known character actor from Indian film and TV, Harish Patel appears as Naveen’s father, while Sunita Mani from GLOW plays Naveen’s sister. Jonathan Groff, of Glee fame, plays Naveen’s white-artist-orphan love interest Jay Kurundkar, named so due to his adoption by an elderly Indian couple.
While the premiere was Sethi’s first visit back to Calgary since leaving for medical school in Boston, he was pleased to return and excited to share memories with his partner Soni. “We talk about [Calgary] a lot” laughs Soni. “He really wanted to show me where he grew up.” While Sethi was not “out” while growing up in Calgary, the sold out theatre (helped in part by CIFF’s presenting partners Calgary Queer Arts, Rang de Pride, and the Indian Society of Calgary) welcomed him home with open arms and a standing ovation.
Before the film, on the red carpet, Sethi recounted his first Hollywood in Calgary memory, saying “There wasn’t much film production, but I do remember that while in high school, we heard they were making a cowboy movie with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, and we were like, “Oh my God can’t wait! … We had no idea it would turn out to be Brokeback Mountain.” It seems for Sethi, things have come full circle, as returned to Calgary from Hollywood with his own queer love story – one with a decidedly happier vibe!
“A Nice Indian Boy” is set to premiere in theatres in the US and Canada on April 4, 2025
