Zoya Akhtar On Criticism That Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor & Others Don’t Look Like 1964 Indians In The Archies: “Are You Saying Fair Indians Are Not Indians?” ( Photo Credit – Facebook ; IMDb )
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Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies – starring Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor and others, has been making the news since it was announced. The Netflix film has been receiving a lot of flax and criticism for featuring nepo kids as well as for the characters not looking like Indian from 1964. Now, the filmmaker has addressed the issue and slammed netizens for making such comments.
Since the film’s teaser was released at a Netflix global fan event TUDUM in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the film began receiving more criticism. Following the teaser of the Indian adaptation of Archie Comics dropped online, fans slammed it, stating that the world and the characters don’t look Indian. For those who don’t know, this Zoya film is set in a fictional hill station in 1964 India named Riverdale.
During a recent chat with Mid-Day (via Hindustan Times), Zoya Akhtar got candid about the criticism she’s received about The Archies cast not looking like 1964’s Indians. She said, “Why do you think that? They’re all Indian. This is kind of reverse (racism). Are you saying fair Indians are not Indians? How do we define what an Indian looks like?”
Continuing further, Zoya Akhtar added, “It could be Hrithik Roshan, it could be Mr. Rajinikanth, it could be Diljit Dosanjh, it could be Mary Kom. That’s the beauty of India. There are a lot of Indians that are light-skinned.”
During a recent interaction with another publication, Zoya revealed the advice she has given the star cast of The Archies. The filmmaker said, “At the end of the day if you do your job well you will be unstoppable.” She continued, “You can’t control anything but yourself. You can’t control what people say, you can’t control what people think, you can’t control if they like you, can’t control if they don’t like you. You can just control what you put out and so that is what you should do. Just focus, be a Jedi.”
Zoya Akhtar’s The Archies stars Agastya Nanda, Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Mihir Ahuja, Vedang Raina, Aditi ‘Dot’ Seigal and Yuvraj Menda as characters based on Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones, Reggie Mantle, Ethel Muggs and Dilton Doiley respectively. The teen-musical comedy is scheduled to release on Netflix in 2023.
What do you think of The Archies after watching its teaser? Let us know in the comments.
