Levantine Films is betting on the queer rom-com “A Good Indian Boy” with a theatrical launch — a gift of confidence in an interval the place rom-coms are generally relegated to streaming platforms.
The film stars “Deadpool” actor Karan Soni as an Indian man who brings his white-orphan-artist boyfriend (carried out by Tony and Grammy winner Jonathan Groff) home to his typical family. When Levantine Films CEO Benjamin Hung first study Madhuri Shekar’s play, on which the film depends, he acknowledged that the story was “a lot much less about coming out” and further regarding the strategy of crossing cultures.
“Ideally, we’re in the hunt for duties that are very uplifting and supplies people hope,” Hung tells Choice about what appealed ample to make a movie.
Levantine Films
Levantine, the New York-based indie manufacturing and financing agency behind awards darlings like “Hidden Figures” and “Beasts of No Nation,” along with crowd-pleasers like “Blinded by the Delicate” and “Jerry and Marge Go Large,” enlisted Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios to co-finance the film. “Nonetheless now we have been going into manufacturing with or with out them,” Hung explains.
“A Good Indian Boy” debuted in restricted launch all through the nation on Friday. And no matter opening all through a spring weekend that sees essential studios like Warner Bros. banking on essential IP with “A Minecraft Movie,” and art-house standout Neon’s “Hell of a Summer season” hoping to capitalize on the “Stranger Points” craze, Hung is assured that word-of-mouth will help “A Good Indian Boy” uncover its viewers.
Ahead of the film’s debut, Hung talked about why it felt correct to push for a theatrical launch, the company’s working relationship with Wayfarer Studios and the studios’ goal of accelerating their yearly film output.
When did you first come all through the play and see the potential for a film adaptation?
Charlie McSpadden [VP of development at Levantine] obtained right here all through the fiddle 2020. We’re truly about compelling tales and characters — considerably ones that are socially conscious or characterize underrepresented segments of society. It checked all the containers.
We labored with creator Madhuri Shekar, who developed it over a two to three-year course of. Halfway into pre-production, Wayfarer Studios, who had been good companions, obtained right here in and financed half the film to alleviate numerous the financial risk. Nonetheless it was truly Levantine driving the boat, and now we have been going into manufacturing with or with out them.
Would Levantine work with Wayfarer Studios as soon as extra?
Correct now, we’ve nothing nonetheless good phrases to say. Beneath the perfect circumstances, we would wish to companion with them as soon as extra.
How does ‘A Good Indian Boy’ match into Levantine’s mannequin ethos and the duties you want to make going forward?
As we switch forward, I would really like Levantine to not solely scale, however moreover develop [beyond] the genres we’ve traditionally executed. The ethos of the company is premium prime quality tales with compelling characters. Interval. In our upcoming slate, we’ve a few fully completely different genres: an action-adventure film; a sci-fi thriller TV assortment that’s going onto the market in a short time; and a vampire comic e-book TV assortment that’s a little bit of “White Lotus” meets “Emily in Paris.” Subsequent up, we’ve “Poetic License,” Maude Apatow’s directorial debut, that stars Leslie Mann, Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman.
The rom-com is one factor Levantine may not have executed to this point, however it certainly’s one which additionally has compelling characters. You’re going to start out out seeing stuff like that from us. Historically, we’ve had spherical one film a 12 months, nonetheless, ideally, I want to get to some or 4.
Levantine Films
Counting on the success of ‘A Good Indian Boy,’ is your long-term goal to spend cash on additional queer-led tales?
It’s all about vary throughout the sense of our film slate. We’re attempting to make one factor for everybody. There shall be some that are additional four-quadrant commercially, and there shall be additional queer tales. It may not primarily be like we’ve to hit a quota yearly. It’s going to be very pure. That’s typically what makes for among the finest tales.
Streaming supplies an attention-grabbing dimension to the dialog as studios aren’t releasing many rom-coms in theaters. What components made you see the potential for ‘A Good Indian Boy’ going theatrical?
Now we have been approached by a complete lot of companions after South by Southwest. Just a few of those places would put it out, nonetheless then they’re releasing 20 completely different motion pictures with no appropriate dedication to theaters.y
On this specific enterprise, we went the self-distribution route, working with Blue Harbor Leisure, and acknowledged, “You understand what? We’re going to wager on ourselves.” We’re in a position to put the extra contact on this from a promoting and advertising perspective, attain out to all of our friends and companions throughout the enterprise and truly get behind it.
In case you watching this movie with one particular person, and even 5, you don’t pretty get the equivalent feeling as when you’re surrounded by tons of of people in a theater, and they also’re laughing and crying.
What have been the necessary factor demos for promoting and advertising? Notably understanding that completely different queer rom-coms like “Bros,” didn’t do very successfully on the sector office, what have been some essential challenges?
We’ve been attempting to concentrate on South Asian markets and a youthful [demos]. We think about that the additional conservative older know-how will hopefully come out from word-of-mouth. Clearly, the LGBTQ+ neighborhood is critical, and the Broadway viewers by means of Jonathan Groff.
Levantine Films
Then there’s Zarna Garg, an up-and-comer with a pilot coming out on CBS. She’s executed a complete lot of stand-up specials and has resonated with older Caucasian girls. That has been truly beautiful as we’ve hit the pageant circuit, significantly the Palm Springs Worldwide Film Pageant.
We nonetheless think about this is usually a four-quadrant film. Getting of us in theaters is the tough issue because of promoting and advertising a queer rom-com. Nonetheless saying, “Hey, that may be very very like ‘Meet the Mom and father’” helps. The playability could also be very extreme. The necessary factor to our promoting and advertising advertising marketing campaign has been concentrating on the perfect theaters for our essential viewers.
Since premiering finally 12 months’s SXSW, what was the method to maintain momentum?
After SXSW, we started evaluating what we wished to do with the film. It took a few months to find out it out, as now we have been working with completely different partnerships; it was a collective effort to think about throughout the movie.
We had a superb pageant method, hitting specific areas like NewFest and the London Film Pageant. The smartest issue to do on the pageant circuit is objective with out over-saturating the market. We started to get just a few of those evaluations in and to get a complete lot of publicity, nonetheless we’ve been attempting to keep up that run. Director Roshan Sethi and all the experience have been implausible. They’ve been doing irrespective of they’ll to place it up on the market.
With the current state of the world and assault on queer and trans rights, do you assume the long run in queer storytelling is in further optimistic rom-coms like ‘A Good Indian Boy’ and ‘The Bridal ceremony Banquet’?
As soon as we study the play, considered one of many attention-grabbing points is that the primary goal is way much less about coming out and further about meeting any person and introducing them to your family members and fully completely different cultures. Ideally, we’re in the hunt for duties that are very uplifting and supplies people hope. 89% of our focus is that this ‘uplifting positivity’ beat, however when there’s one factor else that we want to do, we obtained’t rule it out.
Levantine has had motion pictures like ‘Hidden Figures’ which were nominated for Oscars, nonetheless have been moreover a subject office success. Shifting forward, is Levantine attempting to lean additional into commercially viable duties or awards motion pictures? Or a combination of every?
“Hidden Figures” was kind of the proper storm, checking all the containers. Nonetheless I consider by scaling and having portfolio, you probably can have a combination of every, so that you simply simply’re worthwhile with additional enterprise motion pictures to cowl numerous the awards motion pictures that won’t be as worthwhile.
If we hit a “Hidden Figures” as soon as extra, superior! However once we make a film that we truly wished to make that wasn’t as commercially viable or financially worthwhile, we’ve completely different duties too.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Levantine Films
