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[0:00] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's The Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon.

[0:09] Robert Bannon: Well, welcome to The Roundtable, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon, and you're listening to us on Broadway World over here on the Broadway Podcast Network, iHeart and Spotify. You know, if you watch and listen to this show every day, that my favorite type of movie is a documentary. My husband says I'm obsessed with documentary. I am. I love them. I love documentary filmmakers. I love learning about so many things. Our next documentary is produced and directed by an acclaimed filmmaker who, this concept, everybody, okay, a race for a new male contraception. What? Who? Where? Why? I know why. I mean, I'm assuming why. And why does our next guest, why did she want to make a movie about it? What is the story?

What are her thoughts? I have a lot of questions. You're going to be able to see this, everybody, everywhere pretty soon. It's going to be at film festivals before it rolls out into television, et cetera. She's done Made in India for PBS, and she's done Ask the Sexpert on PBS and Netflix. Vaishali, you're a spicy lady, and I kind of like it.

[1:13] Vaishali Sinha: Hey, it's the first time someone called me that. Thank you.

[1:18] Robert Bannon: You're a spicy lady, and I'm sticking to it. I would like me to be able to say you're a spicy lady. Thank you for being here.

[1:23] Vaishali Sinha: Well, thank you. I think I just have to keep chugging along to be called spicier next time.

[1:27] Robert Bannon: Next time, you're going to be blazing hot. That's what I'm going for.

[1:33] Vaishali Sinha: No, we're just talking about sex. We're just going to... No, I'm kidding.

[1:36] Robert Bannon: Okay, that's fine. Do you talk about it? Meet the Sexpert. Why is there such a stigma in the United States about talking about sex?

[1:43] Vaishali Sinha: You know, this is so... So I was born and raised in India, and then I've spent about an equal amount of time in the US, and I must say that there are parallels in sort of taboos and... Yeah, there's so much to be addressed. I don't... I think it's... I hate to say the P word, but patriarchy, masculinity issues, so much, yeah, to dig into.

[2:11] Robert Bannon: I get it. God forbid we let women have joy or pleasure or a say in their sexual life and relationship.

[2:16] Vaishali Sinha: I think you're right. I don't... Don't mind that word. I think it's important we say that word. When did you come here? When did you come to the United States?

[2:27] Vaishali Sinha: I came in 2004 for film school at the New School University. I did their... I was the very last batch for their 16 millimeter narrative film production program. So that was really fun. I came in the dead of winter, and I don't even think I had the right coat. I just somehow made it through New York winter, but it was so fun to be in the heart of Greenwich Village and to be making films here.

[2:56] Vaishali Sinha: And the first film I made was about a day in the life of a woman who finds out she's pregnant and must make a decision about it. Yeah, it was called Choose Life? And that was my narrative fiction film short at the New School. I, at the time, had no idea, naively so, that I was directly plugging myself into a very political conversation in the United States. But honestly, like this is such a universal topic for women growing up anywhere. So yeah, and yeah, that was... That's when I arrived.

[3:34] Robert Bannon: You jumped right... To keep the fire and spicy, you jumped right in the flame with that. And that's what makes a good filmmaker. So you were 16 millimeter film production. That's back in the day with tape and editing on tape. And did you like that? Or is it easier now to live in a digital world?

[3:46] Vaishali Sinha: Oh my goodness. I did not enjoy it. It was very stressful with all the calculations and light meters and measurements, and not to expose your film, and just to make sure that what you have in the can is what you dreamed of. But I must say, it was... I really enjoyed shot building, putting together fiction films at the time, and sort of just the work of solving a puzzle. That was really fun. And of course, collaborating with team members. And back then, it was just people from all over the world were my cool students. So that was fun.

[4:37] Robert Bannon: So besides this... We're going to talk about the documentary in a minute, but you've also done a lot of other... You've done a lot of other things, like you've been a consultant for Academy Award winning films, or you direct and produce, and you have other projects besides things that you've created and directed and made. What draws you to a project? What draws you to a project to create it? What draws you to a project to just join a team and lend support?

[4:57] Vaishali Sinha: That is such a great question. I think it's super intuitive. I mean, I've tried... I once traveled up to Yellow Bond Music School to explore a film about music theater and music school. And then shortly into it, I was like, you know, it's just... While the concept was amazing, and I hope someone does it, it wasn't for me. And then things just kind of arrive at you and they hook you in. You as the filmmaker who's going to invest the next several years, a documentary filmmaker, it's like a PhD and you better love it, you know. So I think it's something that I always find a way to make it relatable to myself and my experiences.

[5:41] Vaishali Sinha: Yeah, and I think it feels accessible to... If it feels accessible to me, I will get into it. I will sniff out a story. I love character-driven stories. And the minute I find the person who I fall in love with on camera, and I can see the magic and the spark, and I can't wait to bring that to the world, I know, like, yeah, I'm in.

[6:07] Robert Bannon: You're in, and that's it. Why I find documentary filmmakers in particular so interesting is you have an idea. You can have an idea of where you want the film to go, but you really don't have much control. You don't know the ending. And then you have to take all of your footage and put together a story that makes sense to us. How do you start? Do you start by researching? Do you start by doing interviews? And then at what point do you know if you have a movie or not that's going to make sense?

[6:33] Vaishali Sinha: I know this is very dangerous territory, because you could very well fall in love and think you have the concept, and then you could be chasing around for support forever, you know? Or, yes. So, I mean, honestly, I think it's just a very personal thing. Like, if you fall in love with something and you have access, you're going to figure out how to get the audience to see your perspective. And, you know, I mean, often I feel like intuitively I come from a social issue perspective, but my films, I actually gravitate towards an interesting story, something that's surprising that will unfold in surprising ways.

[7:21] Vaishali Sinha: And eventually, I will circle back to sort of the underlying social issue. So those two do connect along the way. But at the very beginning, I will say what draws me is the story. And I will not know for a long time how it's going to end up. And this is a problem I have. I just take topics that just seem like they do not have an act three. But along the way, you sort of make, if you live with it long enough, you figure it out and you make it work. But I have, I mean, there's another topic I've been working on since 2018, that requires a lot of celebrity interviews. And it's a huge pain to, you know, get people to, I mean, yeah, there are certain topics that are challenging.

[8:02] Robert Bannon: That's fun. I can't wait to hear. That's why we're going to follow and stay up to date on all the things that she's doing so we can see. It's almost 10 years of your life, so we got to support that. All right. So here's my million dollar question. What in the world is this documentary, a reversible male contraception, the first of its kind since the condom? So what, where, why, when did you hear about this and what is it about?

[8:35] Vaishali Sinha: Okay, so, yes, the film is called Give It a Shot. And it's about scientists and developers across India and United States working to bring to the market the next reversible male birth control. And there has been nothing since condoms and vasectomy. And I think the modern condom was 200 years ago, developed 200 years ago. Vasectomy is 150 years ago. So, or actually, yeah, something like that. So it's really, you know, I mean, it's baffling that nothing exists since then. So I came, I arrived at this because I had an abortion, a DNC in, you know, several years ago. And my gynecologist asked me if I would like an IUD. And, you know, after having gone through the procedure, and they posed this question to you, after you've just come out of anesthesia, and I'm like, Oh, no, I just want a meal and to relax.

So but as the question was posed to me, I wondered what's there for my husband. And it was a rhetorical question, because I know there's nothing out there. But I was excited. I thought, well, you know, I love public health stories. And maybe this could be another look into also my private obsession with getting people to talk about their private lives and sex and poke, you know, it's like, two in one, you know, you kind of hit the social issue, you get to turn on the camera and talk and make people talk about their private desires and thoughts.

[10:06] Vaishali Sinha: And, and I thought, Oh, well, I was I had a young child at the moment at the time. And I thought, you know, instead of going across to another country and live here, this is the capitalist, most capitalist country, clinical trials, take funding, a lot of money, surely there must be something here, and I won't have to go too far to shoot. But within a couple of hours of my research, I found out the method that was furthest along in the world at the time was in India. And the developers had featured in my first film called Made in India about transnational surrogacy. So I called them and they said, Yeah, come on over to New Delhi. So off I went and and then they told me Do you know the inventor is still alive? And I thought, Well, why wouldn't he be? I was just sort of finding things out along the way. So that's when I found out that the story tracks back to the 1970s.

[11:07] Robert Bannon: Wow. Wow. What what are the fate that it was in India that you knew the people who that like this all fell into a certain way that it was meant to be? Firstly, I couldn't get over it. I hate to be the first person that they tried a vasectomy on 150 years ago. That sounds awful. Secondly, I never thought of it in this patriarchy. I never thought about it in the sense that there hasn't been anything in hundreds of years. And they put the emphasis on the woman to take care of it and not the man just be willy nilly, no pun intended and do whatever he wants. So what is it? Can you tell me?

[11:49] Vaishali Sinha: Yes. So this I want to give away your movie. You're asking about the technology? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. So no, of course, you know,

[11:57] Vaishali Sinha: In the film, we follow a specific kind of... Oh, my goodness. Say hi, Diamond. This is an inappropriate conversation for you. Let me cover your ears. Go ahead. Oh, she's ready. She is ready. Before you know it. It's okay, girl. Live your life. The film follows a method called VAS occlusive method, which is where this technology is a polymer gel injected into the vas deferens of the man. Those are two tubes that carry the ejaculate. The shot plugs in a little polymer gel that in the US is described as a barrier method. So it blocks the sperm, but lets the rest of the ejaculate pass through. And because God forbid, men feel like they're lacking anything. No, I'm kidding. It's super cool because it's much better than vasectomies in that it doesn't create back... What do they call it?

It doesn't create any backup and the ejaculate is allowed to pass through. And in India, it's described as a method that neutralizes the sperm, although it could also be called a barrier method there as well. So yeah, it's a 15-minute procedure. It's a shot through the scrotum and that injects the little amount of polymer gel into the vas deferens. And in various cases, there are three developers that we follow in the film, all kind of developing similar method. They describe it differently in terms of its reversibility and they're all in clinical trials, human clinical trials. This is so fascinating. This is such a fast... Does the movie... I've thought of it like while you were talking like straining pasta or rice, like the water comes out, but the pasta stays in. It's a filter, yeah. It's a filter. There you go.

[14:17] Robert Bannon: So do you talk about why or what people's thoughts are, their perceptions? Because I'm sure men are going to hear this and say, I'm scared. It sounds terrifying and awful. And there's a lot of selling that people have to do to come up with people to do this. Where does your story journey go? What are you telling in this?

[14:39] Vaishali Sinha: Yeah. So, you know, I love to tell stories which are sort of inclusive of all kinds of voices, even though at the heart of it, my story follows a character, their journey and everything that sort of develops as tentacles out of that central story and connects, ties back to the central story. It's just a way I have of doing research and diving deep into understanding the topic. So, yeah, the film follows Dr. Sujoy Guha in New Delhi, who is in his 80s. And he invented this technology in the 1970s, when at the time, the government had asked, you know, him to come up with a method of birth control for men or women. And he had had an idea, which he decided to apply to the male plumbing. And as I was explained, as this was explained to me by him, because it was actually, well, I won't go into details what it was for eventually, initially.

But as you know, it was explained to me by our science advisor that when inventors come up with an idea that's just too good to drop, they'll keep working at it till it applies at the, you know, anyway, this is not his words, it's somebody else's interpretation. But long story short, he was asked to come up with a method of male or female birth control. And he decided to come up with a method for male, for men. And he worked on it through the 70s. And he's a biomedical engineer. Well, he's an electrical engineer by his first initial degree. And he was laughed off by the medical institution who thought, well, you're just an engineer, how dare you come up with a method for that's a medical method.

So he actually in his 40s, went back to school medical medicine school and became a doctor came back and said, now will you take me seriously. And in 1984, the government of India, the ICMR, which is the equivalent of NIH in India, commissioned him and he was often running with, you know, laboratory work, then animal trials, and eventually human clinical trials. Then fast forward to the 2000s. And there was somebody from the US who interacted with him got to know the work, licensed it for North America. And our film also catches up post Roe v. Wade with another developer. Their work is called Contraline and their product is Adam, who has also been inspired by Dr. Guha's work. So it was really wonderful to see sort of the lasting legacy and also to see that Dr. Guha was himself once a young man when he started working on this.

And now there are these young men who are working on the same method still. And the question remains, why is it taking? Why has it taken years and years and years? I think everyone has a different answer to it. But I think we all intuitively can understand why. If they had this, which they do, for women, I would say would be done already. But men do this, all of a sudden, it's a different story. And fascinating. What a fascinating topic. You know what I'm saying, Diamond? It's a fascinating topic, and a fascinating story. I have lots of feelings and thoughts and questions, which I hope I'm going to get answered when I watch the documentary. Look, I have a husband. So no matter how hard we try, I've yet to get him pregnant or him to get me pregnant.

[18:24] Robert Bannon: Well, very kind of you to pay attention to this topic, nonetheless. But because it's so fascinating to me, because I think sexual health and planning your family and still being able to have a healthy relationship with people you love and with yourself is so important. I think we all need to talk about it. And knowledge is power. Knowing what's available, knowing the conversations and being up and up about what people are doing and can do with their body, I think is such a very important subject. So thank you for having it.

[18:51] Vaishali Sinha: Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, I mean, I don't think this would see the light of day without the support of a few precious people who do see, did see the value in it. And I think, you know, as my co-producer from India put it, that women have been the biggest champions of this film, and men as well, some men, but I feel like it's just, you know, requires when I first started working on this in 2020, it really felt left field to so many people, I assume, because of the lack of support. But then public television stepped in and sandbox films that make science films stepped in. And these were our biggest supporters. And I'm just so grateful to them. It really requires a lot of attention. And yet I feel like it continues to get kicked down the road.

[19:41] Robert Bannon: Well, you did it and you made it and you got it out here. So how can we see it? How can we support it? Tell us about the plan of the rollout.

[19:45] Vaishali Sinha: Great. So we premiered at Big Sky Film, Documentary Film Festival in Missoula in Feb of this year, 2026. And we've been on a festival journey. We won an award in Austin, Texas, we went to London, Indian Film Festival, to Germany, to a bunch of places. It's had a wonderful conversation everywhere. And come this Friday, we are rolling it out theatrically in starting with New York at DCTV. And it's going to be a week-long engagement. Then we go to the Lemley Theaters in L.A. And please spread the word. My network in L.A. is very small, but I'm hoping that we are able to sort of draw a ton of crowd. And yeah, and we continue from there onwards to Denver, Dallas, San Francisco, all three at Alamo Drafthouse on World Contraception Day, which is September 26th, and Seattle and onwards. And then eventually on, yeah, we have a television screening next year. Yes, eventually you'll find it.

[20:52] Robert Bannon: So we can be following the film and stay up to date with you and what's going on. And if you're in L.A., you're in New York, you're going to be in a city where it's going to be, go see it, have the conversation with your loved ones and see what the medical technology that maybe you're not getting the information about that you know is on the road and see this stuff can change the world. It's going to change the world and definitely change the way we think about all the contraception and physical relationships with ones out here. And it's important. It's a really important conversation. Congratulations.

[21:22] Vaishali Sinha: Thank you so much. Thanks. I really appreciate your time and your love and attention for this. We need more. So I'm so thankful.

[21:34] Robert Bannon: My show is your show. I hope you come on all the time and you're fun. Like, it's really fun to talk to the documentary filmmaker who's got a film that has to do with sex and be funny about it because you could be like, that's it. It's fun. We should be having more people. I was telling someone yesterday that the last film when I made Ask the Sexpert, I, until I found Zeroed In on the central subject, I was looking for so many, like, I was looking everywhere and this was filmed in Mumbai. I was looking at, you know, interviewing people, quacks and anybody who could be a portal into like male sexuality, which to me is just so fun to sort of needle with and like, you know, understand. And actually, a lot of these men thought I was about to make a porn film or, and they're like, madam, are you going to be in it?

And I'm like, no, what? I like to be behind the camera. But it was, you know, as a documentary filmmaker, your research can be so interesting and funny. And just meeting people is just so fun and their expectations. And also, I feel like eventually the people who come on camera are those who really want to tell their stories. So it becomes a really fun engagement.

[22:51] Vaishali Sinha: Yeah, I love that. I enjoy it greatly.

[22:55] Robert Bannon: Well, I enjoy watching them. I can't wait to watch this. I can't wait to see what you've got up your sleeve now. I'm sure you got ideas about what's next. I'm sure. So you're not stopping now. So everybody stay tuned and find out Vaishali is going to be out here with this movie and many more and make sure you are a fan and following and supporting this film. The government in this United States trying to get rid of PBS, they're trying to get rid of public broadcasting, you're trying to get rid of knowledge, power, autonomy over yourself.

[23:25] Vaishali Sinha: Autonomy.

[23:26] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Stand up for the kind of work that she's doing and support it. Everybody, everywhere. Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations.

[23:30] Vaishali Sinha: Thank you so much.

[23:34] Robert Bannon: Till the next one.

[23:37] Vaishali Sinha: Till the next one.

[23:38] Robert Bannon: Till the next one. Yes.

[23:40] Vaishali Sinha: Bye.

[23:41] Robert Bannon: Bye.