Lainey sent me a trailer for a movie premiering at Sundance this weekend, Brahman Naman, a sex comedy that’s a British/Indian co-production. It’s about Naman, a college quiz show champ who’s trying to lose his virginity while traveling to a national quiz challenge. It looks like a cross between British comedy/movie star prediction machine Starter for 10 and American Pie. You know what part got me in the trailer? The bit with the fan. That’s a great bit. You know where it’s going and the way it gets there is solid.
When was the last time a movie featuring a majority Indian cast was a hit in the US? Slumdog Millionaire? Brahman Naman probably won’t be as big as that movie—it will undoubtedly get an R rating, which will affect broad appeal—but we’re overdue for another crossover hit. A movie like this would be easy to sell to audiences, especially by playing up the sex comedy angle. That’s probably reductive of the film as a whole, but you hook people with the universality of experience. We’ve been telling the same three stories since the cave painting days, it’s just how you tell it that differs.
