India, Oct. 24 -- A few days ago, Canadian director Roshan Sethi's 2024 directorial venture, A Nice Indian Boy was released in India as A Nice Boy. The distributor reportedly cited "censorship" for the name change. The film, however, leaves no stone unturned to showcase all the mainstream cultural markers of Indian identity in the South Asian diaspora: the "nice boy" Jay (Jonathan Groff) is adopted by an Indian family and grows up steeped in Indian culture; his love interest, Naveen (Karan Soni), must navigate his partner around unsuspecting parents. They meet in a temple and aspire to a big, fat traditional wedding.

The removal of the word "Indian" before "boy" is telling because non heteronormative masculinity continues to be a cultura...