Prominent Bollywood filmmaker Zoya Akhtar responded to all the backlash her upcoming Indian adaptation of ‘The Archies’ has received.
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At a recently held TUDUM Festival, the annual fan event of streaming giant Netflix, which she attended with the cast of the film, Zoya Akhtar sternly responded to the flak ‘The Archies’ has received since the first teaser.
In response to the claims of debut actors being ‘white people’, Akhtar said, “Why do you think that? They’re all Indian. This is kind of reverse [racism].”
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She went on to question, “Are you saying fair Indians are not Indians? How do we define what an Indian looks like? 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.”
As for ‘The Archies’, the live-action musical set in 1960s India is written by Ayesha Devitre known for her work on the comedy-drama ‘Kapoor & Sons’ while the prolific filmmaker Akhtar helmed it. Reema Kagti is the producer of the movie with the latter.
The Indian retelling of the comic book classic will mark the debut of three star kids, Suhana Khan (daughter of Shahrukh Khan), Khushi Kapoor (daughter of late Sridevi), and Agastya Nanda (grandson of Amitabh Bachchan), along with young actors Mihir Ahuja, Yuvraj Menda, Dot, and Vedang Raina.
The film is coming soon on the streaming platform Netflix.
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