Director Zoya Akhtar has proven her abilities in the film industry over the years with hits such as Gully Boy, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Dhadakne Do, and Luck By Chance. For her next movie, the director decided to tackle the difficult task of Indianizing the well-known Archies. She also had the unique chance to work creatively with her brother and father on this project.
Undoubtedly, the Archies have fueled the nepotism fire. Zoya Akhtar is continually mocked for casting star youngsters like Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, and Agastya Nanda and giving them greater publicity than other cast members like Dot, Vedang Raina, Mihir Ahuja, and Yuvraj Menda. Interestingly, though, two generations of Akhtars are also included in The Archies. Although Zoya is the film’s director and writer, Javed Akhtar wrote the album’s lyrics, and Farhan Akhtar is a co-writer.
In an exclusive interview with News18, Zoya talks candidly about working with her brother, who hired her as an assistant director for his first two movies, Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya. Regarding Farhan’s impact on The Archies universe, she states, “The Hindi dialogues came from Farhan. He took a blueprint and made it into his syntax, the syntax of that particular language, and the simplicity of the Archie comics. Getting the corniness and humour of the comics was tough, but he brought that out well. He was the one who introduced the phrase ‘Va Va Voom’ from the comics into the song.”
Zoya also praises her father, who is known for his dulcet songs and couplets in Hindi and Urdu, for mastering the Gen-Z vocabulary. For those who don’t know, he wrote the lyrics for songs in The Archies, including Sunoh, Va Va Voom, Dhishoom Dhishoom, and Plum Pudding, among other soft rock, jazz, and fusion hits.
Commenting on his ‘extreme versatility’, Zoya goes on to say, “He can write lyrics for a film like Lagaan and a Rock On, and that’s the beauty. Having said that, it was a bit of a tough brief. It’s sometimes very tough to be simple. We needed the lyrics to sound like 1960s teenage voices. It needed to be Anglo-Indian, so it couldn’t be very heavy on Urdu or Hindi. It had to be simple, communicative, and conversation-like and fit into a rock-and-roll meter.”
December 7 is the scheduled release date for The Archies on Netflix.
