Interview:
Nishank Verma,
Aakash Prabhakar,
stars,
Sudharshan Narayanan,
director,
Anshulika Dubey,
writer/producer,
"How to Not Have Sex"
How appropriate it is that How to Not Have Sex, a Hindi reinterpretation of Stephen Belber’s 1999 pre-#MeToo play Tape, will receive its Texas premiere at the cinema that is home to the Richard Linklater-founded Austin Film Society. Linklater directed the 2001 film version of Tape, and the Indie Meme Film Festival will screen How to Not Have Sex at 2:30 p.m. June 7 at the AFS Cinema with director Sudharshan Narayanan and writer/producer Anshulika Dubey in attendance. Nishank Verman and Aakash Prabhakar assume the roles originated onscreen by Robert Sean Leonard and Ethan Hawke in this single-location three-hander about toxic masculinity, sexual violence, prolonged trauma, and accountability. In How to Not Have Sex, acclaimed up-and-coming filmmaker Jai (Verman) visits boys soccer coach Vikram (Prabhakar) at his rented apartment before their school reunion. Still haunted by an incident that occurred 10 years earlier, Vikram coaxes an unsuspecting Jai into confessing on tape that he raped Amrita, a girl they both dated in school. But Vikram’s attempt to force Jai to confess in person to Amrita takes an unexpected turn when Amrita arrives at the apartment and seizes control of the situation. Taking its title from the Cannes-winning film directed by Jai, How to Not Have Sex also stars Amrita Bagchi as Amrita, the role Uma Thurman played in Tape. Sudharshan Narayanan makes his solo feature-length directorial debut with How to Not Have Sex after co-directing the 2020 drama Freddie’s Piano with Aakash Prabhakar. Producer Anshulika Dubey makes her screenwriting debut with her Tape adaptation How to Not Have Sex, which she has updated with Indian audiences in mind. Stars Nishank Verma and Aakash Prabhakar previously starred opposite each other in a Mumbai stage production of Tape, which Prabhakar directed.
Aired: June 3, 2026. Web sites: https://www.indiememe.org/event-details/how-to-not-have-sex |
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