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Levantine Films is betting on the queer rom-com “A Nice Indian Boy” with a theatrical release — a show of confidence in an era where rom-coms are often relegated to streaming platforms.
The film stars “Deadpool” actor Karan Soni as an Indian man who brings his white-orphan-artist boyfriend (played by Tony and Grammy winner Jonathan Groff) home to his traditional family. When Levantine Films CEO Benjamin Hung first read Madhuri Shekar’s play, on which the film is based, he recognized that the story was “less about coming out” and more about the process of crossing cultures.
“Ideally, we’re looking for projects that are very uplifting and give people hope,” Hung tells Variety about what appealed enough to make a movie.
Levantine Films
Levantine, the New York-based indie production and financing company behind awards darlings like “Hidden Figures” and “Beasts of No Nation,” along with crowd-pleasers like “Blinded by the Light” and “Jerry and Marge Go Large,” enlisted Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios to co-finance the film. “But we were going into production with or without them,” Hung explains.
“A Nice Indian Boy” debuted in limited release across the country on Friday. And despite opening during a spring weekend that sees major studios like Warner Bros. banking on major IP with “A Minecraft Movie,” and art-house standout Neon’s “Hell of a Summer” hoping to capitalize on the “Stranger Things” craze, Hung is confident that word-of-mouth will help “A Nice Indian Boy” find its audience.
Ahead of the film’s debut, Hung discussed why it felt right to push for a theatrical release, the company’s working relationship with Wayfarer Studios and the studios’ goal of expanding their yearly film output.
When did you first come across the play and see the potential for a film adaptation?
Charlie McSpadden [VP of development at Levantine] came across the play around 2020. We are really about compelling stories and characters — particularly ones that are socially conscious or represent underrepresented segments of society. It checked all the boxes.
We worked with writer Madhuri Shekar, who developed it over a two to three-year process. Halfway into pre-production, Wayfarer Studios, who had been great partners, came in and financed half the film to alleviate some of the financial risk. But it was really Levantine driving the boat, and we were going into production with or without them.
Would Levantine work with Wayfarer Studios again?
Right now, we have nothing but good words to say. Under the right circumstances, we would love to partner with them again.
How does ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ fit into Levantine’s brand ethos and the projects you want to make going forward?
As we move forward, I want Levantine to not only scale, but also grow [beyond] the genres we’ve traditionally done. The ethos of the company is premium quality stories with compelling characters. Period. In our upcoming slate, we have a few different genres: an action-adventure film; a sci-fi thriller TV series that is going onto the market very soon; and a vampire comic book TV series that’s a little “White Lotus” meets “Emily in Paris.” Next up, we have “Poetic License,” Maude Apatow’s directorial debut, that stars Leslie Mann, Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman.
The rom-com is something Levantine may not have done in the past, but it’s one that still has compelling characters. You’re going to start seeing stuff like that from us. Historically, we’ve had around one film a year, but, ideally, I want to get to three or four.
Levantine Films
Depending on the success of ‘A Nice Indian Boy,’ is your long-term goal to invest in more queer-led stories?
It’s all about diversity in the sense of our film slate. We’re trying to make something for everybody. There will be some that are more four-quadrant commercially, and there will be more queer stories. It may not necessarily be like we have to hit a quota every year. It’s going to be very organic. That’s usually what makes for the best stories.
Streaming adds an interesting dimension to the conversation as studios aren’t releasing many rom-coms in theaters. What factors made you see the potential for ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ going theatrical?
We were approached by a lot of partners after South by Southwest. Some of these places would put it out, but then they’re releasing 20 other films without a proper commitment to theaters.y
On this particular project, we went the self-distribution route, working with Blue Harbor Entertainment, and said, “You know what? We’re going to bet on ourselves.” We can put the extra touch on this from a marketing perspective, reach out to all of our friends and partners in the industry and really get behind it.
When you watching this movie with one person, or even five, you don’t quite get the same feeling as when you’re surrounded by hundreds of people in a theater, and they’re laughing and crying.
What were the key demos for marketing? Especially knowing that other queer rom-coms like “Bros,” did not do very well at the box office, what were some major challenges?
We’ve been trying to target South Asian markets and a younger [demos]. We believe that the more conservative older generation will hopefully come out from word-of-mouth. Obviously, the LGBTQ+ community is important, and the Broadway audience through Jonathan Groff.
Levantine Films
Then there’s Zarna Garg, an up-and-comer with a pilot coming out on CBS. She’s done a lot of stand-up specials and has resonated with older Caucasian women. That has been really surprising as we’ve hit the festival circuit, especially the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
We still believe this is a four-quadrant film. Getting folks in theaters is the challenging thing because of marketing a queer rom-com. But saying, “Hey, this is very much like ‘Meet the Parents’” helps. The playability is very high. The key to our marketing campaign has been targeting the right theaters for our primary audience.
Since premiering at last year’s SXSW, what was the strategy to keep up momentum?
After SXSW, we started evaluating what we wanted to do with the film. It took a few months to figure it out, as we were working with other partnerships; it was a collective effort to believe in the movie.
We had a great festival strategy, hitting specific areas like NewFest and the London Film Festival. The smartest thing to do on the festival circuit is target without over-saturating the market. We started to get some of these reviews in and to get a lot of publicity, but we’ve been trying to sustain that run. Director Roshan Sethi and all the talent have been fantastic. They’ve been doing whatever they can to promote it.
With the current state of the world and attack on queer and trans rights, do you think the future in queer storytelling is in more optimistic rom-coms like ‘A Nice Indian Boy’ and ‘The Wedding Banquet’?
When we read the play, one of the appealing things is that the focus is less about coming out and more about meeting someone and introducing them to your family and different cultures. Ideally, we’re looking for projects that are very uplifting and give people hope. 89% of our focus is this ‘uplifting positivity’ beat, but if there’s something else that we want to do, we won’t rule it out.
Levantine has had films like ‘Hidden Figures’ that were nominated for Oscars, but were also a box office success. Moving forward, is Levantine trying to lean more into commercially viable projects or awards films? Or a combination of both?
“Hidden Figures” was kind of the perfect storm, checking all the boxes. But I think by scaling and having a good portfolio, you can have a mix of both, so that you’re profitable with more commercial films to cover some of the awards films that may not be as successful.
If we hit a “Hidden Figures” again, awesome! But if we make a film that we really wanted to make that wasn’t as commercially viable or financially successful, we have other projects too.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Levantine Films
