Zoya Akhtar opened up on what advice she gave to the star cast of her upcoming Netflix film The Archies in terms of dealing with the trolling and nepotism talk on social media.
Zoya Akhtar’s upcoming Netflix film The Archies is an Indian adaptation of the popular comic of the same name. Speaking about its cast, among the six newcomers, you have Shah Rukh Khan‘s daughter Suhana Khan, Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda and late Sridevi’s daughter Khushi Kapoor.
Owing to this reason, right from the film’s announcement, it has been subjected to trolling on social media by those who are against ‘nepotism in Bollywood’.
Recently, in an interview with Film Companion, Zoya Akhtar opened up on the advice she gave her film’s cast when it comes to dealing with negativity and nepotism talk.
The Dil Dhadakne Do director shared that it’s natural for kids to choose their parents’ career and added that no one should dictate what one can or cannot do.
“I mean you have grown up. At the end of the day we all grow up wanting to follow our dreams. When you grow up in a house and you have parents you get on with or parents that you admire, you just end up doing things they do and it is as simple as that. Who is anyone to say you can’t do this or you can’t do that. You don’t (have any training), you have to roll with the punches. You have to get out there. you have to keep your head down and work hard. That’s it,” Zoya told the publication.
The filmmaker said that she told the kids to ‘be a Jedi’ and focus on their work because at the end of the day, one is unstoppable if they do their job well.
Zoya shared, “At the end of the day if you do your job well you will be unstoppable. Do your job, that is it. Everything else, I just bubble myself. I just focus on what I have to do and if I will do it well or if I do it honestly, it will find its audience. That’s it, 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.”
Shedding light on how the debutants prepped for their respective roles in The Archies, the filmmaker revealed that all the six kids “started from scratch” which included reading the comics, watching countless musicals and films from that period and undergoing various workshops. She also added that as debutants, the cast were also trained how to act for the camera and understanding the technicalities of it.
Directed by Zoya Akhtar, The Archies revolves around Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, and Betty Cooper, who live in an Anglo-Indian hill station in 1964 Riverdale, India.
