We were recently granted an opportunity to sit down with the stars of Roshan Sethi's critically acclaimed new film A Nice Indian Boy, and in the first half of our two interviews, we caught up with Sunita Mani (GLOW; Mr. Robot, Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain) and comedian-turned-actress Zarna Garg, who makes her film debut with this fun-filled family wedding comedy.
In our breezy conversation, the duo talk me through some of the most fun aspects of making this film, including working with Eternals scene-stealer Harish Patel, and why this feature feels far more authentic than other Indian-American comedies.
The film's synopsis reads, "When Naveen (Karan Soni), a soft spoken doctor, finally brings his charming white-artist boyfriend Jay (Jonathan Groff) home to meet his traditional Indian family, misunderstandings and emotional revelations put everyone on edge. Despite facing uncomfortable truths about their own ideas of love and marriage, the family attempts to plan the big Indian wedding of Naveen and Jay’s dreams."
The cast features Karan Soni, Jonathan Groff, Sunita Mani, Zarna Garg, Harish Patel, Peter S. Kim, and Sas Goldberg.
A Nice Indian Boy is now playing in theaters across the United States and Canada!
Watch our full video interview with stars Zarna Garg ("Megha") and Sunita Mani ("Arundhathi") below and/or keep scrolling to read the transcription. Plus, please remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: For both of you, were there any moments in the script that resonated with your own experiences as Indian Americans?
SUNITA: Completely, so much of it, yeah, it's rare for me to be on like a primarily Indian, South Asian cast. It's just that, in and of itself, is like, alright, let's exist fully, and let's be really, you know, there's just an authenticity that rises to the surface, whether or not you're even conscious of it. It's so cool to exist just more dimensionally. Yeah, Arundhathi is so close to my experience. I mean, we know her, we love her, we love to hate her. And yeah, it’s fun to play someone who's so angry and misunderstood and fierce and unapologetic.
ZARNA: I would say the same. It's very close to my character in real life. It's very close to my life. I'm a mother in real life. I have three kids, so everything that Megha is going through in the movie, I completely understand and relate to. That's the most charming part of the script is that it feels as real as it does. It could be any one of our families and make all the sense, and I think that's the biggest surprise of the script is that in this extremely real world, we feel so many emotions, the highs, the lows, the singing, the dancing, it feels like you're visiting friends. I think, in a movie theater, it's gonna feel like you're visiting a friend's real life wedding and story.
ROHAN: My fiancé and I are in the middle of planning our wedding right now, so a lot of what was going on hit home, especially that invitation scene.
SUNITA: How much say do you have in the wedding planning?
ROHAN: I mean, she said I’m invited.
SUNITA: *laughing* That's good!
ROHAN: Zarna, I don’t think there’s anything tougher than being an Indian mom, what do you think this movie got right about being an Indian mom and the love you have for your family?
ZARNA: Oh, my God, they got the mom that lives in the times that we're in. Like, enough with the over exaggerated Indian mom who's upset about everything. It's not the world we live in. It's not like if one of my kids was gay, I'm not going to threaten to kill myself. What are we doing writing these caricaturist characters? I think this is real life, like, I have friends whose kids are gay, we're all fine. Nobody is sitting around gossiping about the kid. None of that is happening, but all of us are busy, productive women, doing our own things, and very happy for our kids’ happiness. We are very happy to be happy in our real life, like this movie overall, got one thing right, it made a very exuberantly happy brown people movie. Like, there are so many brown people movies that are sad and heavy, and we finally made that movie that we should have had a long time ago, like, a joyful movie about all the everyday things that make us a happy people overall.
SUNITA: Yeah, it's like perfectly layered and nuanced, and I think it gets so much right. I think the dialogue is very real and very lived in, like, so that you can just drop into the middle of this family story and, be on the ride with them for the whole movie. You're very invested. And you get to see where everyone's coming from.
ROHAN: I really enjoyed the kitchen scenes where everyone is talking over one another and multiple conversations are happening simultaneously, definitely felt like a family dinner.
SUNITA: Totally, and getting to see the home, like within the four walls of this Indian household, like you're spending a lot of time there, and it needs to be done accurately to feel like it's real.
ROHAN: Sunita, on some level, it felt like your character Arundhathi having to tell her family that she and her husband were splitting up was more difficult than Naveen introducing his boyfriend. Can you speak on her facing that sort of obstacle? And, why these kinds of conversations can be so challenging?
SUNITA: Yeah, I think through Arundhathi and her function in the script and in the movie, I could play like pain right on the surface. Her energy is a little bit dark and stormy, and she's like, very trapped and very strong, like trying to break the cage bars open, but you never quite understand why, and you never quite stay - you can understand her. You can sympathize with her, but not fully so like she's carrying this kind of misunderstood identity throughout the film. Everyone is, in our movie, but, yeah, I think the license to just play kind of a harder edged person, so that we can sympathize with her is interesting. I think, in conversation, what I was learning about the character as I took on the role, is people were worried she was a little too much of an unlikable character, because she's not very nice. She's abrasive, and she's got her own thing to prove, and you're not contextualizing why she has that. You kind of, through her experience, understand why, because of the dynamic that the family has. You know, she's kind of created this for herself, and it has created her, like the way she fits into the family. So, yeah, I almost thought of it as like being in a different movie, where, unfortunately, her pain is kind of funny in this context, but also it's fortunate that we can laugh at that and see that within our, you know, we laugh because it's true and it's familiar, so it like can provide catharsis.
ROHAN: Zarna, what was your experience working opposite Harish Patel? He is so fantastic in this movie and your chemistry is fantastic.
SUNITA: You know, he's such a pro because he's been doing this for decades, so I kind of just went with his lead. I'm new to this, this is my first movie. I went with his lead and with my director's instructions. I mean, he is just - the camera would turn on, and he was just in the moment, he knew what everybody was doing and feeling and thinking. And, in some ways, it was a master class to watch, because I was new at this, so I was just preoccupied with delivering my lines. But I would watch him, and he would know where Arundhathi had to stop, or when Naveen had to come in and all, and I learned from him that, you kind of as an actor, have to learn what other people are doing too. But he's phenomenal, and he even has, like, a dance rhythm that surprised all of us, I think.
ROHAN: In the script, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge plays a big part in Naveen and Jay's love story - what were some Bollywood films that inspired you growing up?
ZARNA: Oh my god, I'm a full on product of Bollywood.
SUNITA: Are you?
ZARNA: I'm a walking encyclopedia. Ask me any question about any movie.
SUNITA: Zarna has an amazing voice too.
ZARNA: No, no, no, but I do know most Bollywood. I've watched every movie, I've read about, every movie, I can tell you which movie did how much business. I was born and raised in Mumbai. I mean, we don't mess around with Bollywood. We're part of that culture, and it remains to this day.
SUNITA: I grew up in like rural southern baptist Tennessee, and we were, like, the only Indian family for miles. So, the Hindi film, Bollywood thing was when I would get together with extended family. I grew up in the Tabu and Aishwarya Rai days, I remember, my aunt was the one who was like, we're watching the movies. Like my immediate family, we didn't really watch them, but when we got together with the cousins, I grew up on this movie called Kandukondain Kandukondain. I remember those songs. I was obsessed with that movie growing up, and I just thought Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit were amazing - I just love them. They're so good.
ZARNA: They’re still good today, they’re still stunning, beautiful ladies doing great work today.
SUNITA: Yeah, and just like the way they could play to the camera, and just have like, so much fun and sexuality and just like, it was just the facial expression. It was just such fun camp that I loved, but it was, like, kind of peppered in my life. I didn’t grow up speaking Hindi or singing Hindi film songs too much. But, yeah, there's still a place in there.
Watch A Nice Indian Boy only in theaters in the following cities:
Naveen Gavaskar is a self-effacing, soft-spoken doctor with a boisterous mother, seemingly perfect sister and quiet father. The Gavaskars are outwardly accepting of Naveen’s sexuality but have never had to confront it in practice.
While at temple, Naveen meets Jay Kurundkar, a white man adopted by two Indian parents. Naveen is slowly charmed and softened by Jay’s sincerity and confidence. They fall in love—even as Naveen avoids telling his family about Jay.
One afternoon, they run into Naveen’s brother-in-law and an embarrassed Naveen describes Jay as a “friend”. The encounter precipitates a discussion in which Naveen admits that he, like Jay, dreams of having a big Indian wedding. Now, Jay, who has no family of his own, must meet the Gavaskars –– Naveen’s family. This causes a collision between the family, Jay—who has his own insecurities—and Naveen, caught between who he is with his family and who he is outside of it.
After comic misunderstandings, frank fights, and emotional revelations, the family falls apart, questioning everything. Naveen and Jay’s hard-won love makes each of the Gavaskars face the reality of their own relationships. And through a sweetly woven reconciliation, they come together again to plan Naveen & Jay’s own big, Indian wedding.