Roshan Sethi

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I can't give this title out often before it becomes meaningless, but the best film I've seen this year is A NICE INDIAN BOY (2024), by director Roshan Sethi. And with SINNERS (2025), it's the hottest story in film right now. Let's talk about why that is with one of the most intelligent and analytic minds in filmmaking: Roshan Sethi.

In this episode, Roshan and I talk about:

• the overwhelming positive response to the film and what that says about the state of independent film;
• how did they know to go "all in" with theaters?
• he does a deep dive into the complex nature of distribution;
• his path from doctor to indie filmmaker;
• was it because he was bothered by medical inaccuracies in Hollywood? no, not at all;
• what about romcoms draws him to that material and what he learned from 7 DAYS?
• he's done both a heteronormative and a queer romcom; was he worried about the release of this film?
• when does he trust a streamers' algo?
• ** how to cast ethnic, queer, or other niches and what guideposts to use for actors that aren't part of a particular group? "often gay roles are used to launch stars"; this is a must listen answer **
• it seemed like this would be a written and directed feature but it came from a play; what kind of adaptations did he make?
• how he borrowed a technique from reality television to move along different plot points simultaneously;
• how to find profitability in great indie films -- "And so the problem is not the creators who are creating very diverse content, that's often very good. It's not the audiences who crave diverse content, it's the people who are in the middle, which is film executives and the apparatus of the system";
• his advice as a mentor for the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles; "I am just recommending that everybody make as commercial a project as they can, action, horror, thriller, whatever";
• where did the nobility come from in being broke to make films? "every art form suffers from a certain amount of pretentiousness, which is the desire to be artistically elevated and to be seen as an artist who is more sophisticated than other artists;
• his thought process of releasing the film for streaming while it's in theaters;
• having to think about releasing an indie film almost like politicians think about precincts.

Roshan's Indie Film Highlight: GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS (2024) dir. by Shuchi Talati

Links:

Follow Roshan On Instagram

Follow A NICE INDIAN BOY On Instagram

A NICE INDIAN BOY Official Website