Filmmaker Deepa Mehta said that she was "disappointed" that her film Funny Boy, a coming-of-age drama about a young Tamil boy in 1980s Sri Lanka who falls in love with a male classmate, will not be streaming on Netflix India. The film was only released in the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It was odd that a film set in Sri Lanka was not being released in South Asia, or anywhere outside these four countries. The film isn't even on Netflix in Canada, which sent the film as its official entry to the Oscars for Best International Feature. "I was disappointed when I heard that Netflix India had passed on acquiring Funny Boy for India when Netflix Global was streaming it for English speaking territories across the world. But [...] I do want to make it clear that I did not speak to anyone in Netflix India personally pitching the film to them, nor was I told what their reason of passing on it was. We were just told that this was Netflix India’s decision. Can only ruminate on their rationale - LGBT’Q content? Political content or perhaps that they plain did not like the film and think it appropriate for their viewers." — Deepa Mehta to MediaNama. Netflix says film part of bulk deal Netflix told MediaNama that it had licensed Funny Boy as a part of an output deal with filmmaker Ava DuVernay's ARRAY, a collective that works on amplifying the work of Black and women…
