Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar, who is gearing up for the release of her Netflix film ‘The Archies’, revealed how she trained star kids Suhana Khan, Agastya Nanda, and Khushi Kapoor to prepare for the rough moments like negativity and nepotism debate when the film releases.
The live-action musical also stars Mihir Ahuja, Dot., Vedang Raina, and Yuvraj Menda.
In an interview with Film Companion, Zoya said, ‘See at the end of the day, we all grow up. We all grow up wanting to follow our dreams. When you grow up in a house with parents you admire, you just end up doing things they do. It is as simple as that. Who is anyone to say, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that.'’
Zoya added, ‘You don’t. You have to roll with the punches. You have to go out there, you have to keep your head down and work hard. At the end of the day, if you do your job well, you will be unstoppable. Do your job, that’s it, everything else… I just bubble myself, I focus on what I have to do, and if I do it well or honestly, it will find its audience. You can’t control anything but yourself. You can’t control what people say, think, if they like you or they don’t. You can just control what you put out. So that’s what you should do– focus, be a Jedi.’
The filmmaker further said all the six kids ‘started from scratch’ for ‘The Archies’, which included reading the comics, watching musicals of the 60s, and undergoing several workshops.
‘They had to read the comics obviously, because it’s not their generation, I gave them countless films to watch from the period, teenage films, musicals, just different tonalities. They did acting workshops, dance workshops, singing workshops, they had to do skating, swimming, cycling,’ she said.
‘Then we did an entire workshop with them with camera, had to explain to them because it is a very technical job. So catching the light, hitting the mark, what does it mean to give shoulder, to be in a close up, to be in a wide shot, action continuity, what is set protocol. They went to school. They came to set trained,’ Zoya shared.
Netflix has partnered with Archie Comics for the 1960s-set film. The movie is backed by Zoya and filmmaker Reema Kagti through their production house Tiger Baby.