Starring three star kids Suhana Khan, daughter of Shah Rukh Khan, Agastya Nanda, grandson of Amitabh Bachchan, and Khushi Kapoor daughter of Boney Kapoor and Sridevi, The Archies was helmed by Zoya Akhtar. The teen musical drama was based on American comic series with the same title. The moment that teaser of the film was released in the month of June last year, the film was trolled for ‘promoting nepotism’, ‘being too white’.
Finally, The Archies got mixed to positive responses from the audiences when it was released on Netflix on the 7th of December in 2023. Now, during the director’s latest interview with The Indian Express, she was asked what she could have done differently in the film, and she replied, “I think there are certain things with the screenplay, I could have done differently, and certain things with the marketing.”
When asked what changes she might have made for the screenplay, she said “No, I don’t want to say this.”
Upon being asked about nepotism in an interview before the release of The Archies, which also featured Vedang Raina and Mihir Ahuja, Aditi Saigal, and Yuvraj Menda, Zoya had said that media completely skipped over the four new faces in the movie. Speaking to Film Companion, she, in turn, blamed the media for not focusing on other four kids, and rather only talking about the three star kids – Suhana, Khushi, and Agastya. “You robbed their moment and it’s heartbreaking to see. Who are you talking to? To us? We’ve put seven kids out there. You’ve just ignored four. And you took away their moment. So sorry. Your problem,” she stated.
