Recently, Zoya Akhtar dropped the poster and teaser for her next film – The Archies. Set in the 1960s, the film will be a musical drama that’s an adaptation of the famous Archies comics. However, not many are pleased with the concept.
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Here’s what people have been complaining about:
1. The film features 3 star kids who are making their debut and hence, promotes nepotism.
2. All the actors are extremely fair-skinned. It fails in its Indian representation.
3. The film looks less Indian and more European.
Some even said that ‘Bridgerton 2’ and other Hollywood films have more Indian representation than ‘The Archies’. Have a look:
Hollywood has more and better dark skinned indian representation than Bollywood 💀 https://t.co/pE5CP5ztJ4
— cant think of a dn 🤨 (@guilloTIME) May 14, 2022
Just saw an ad of ‘The Archies’ by Zoya Akhtar with a handful of star kids dressed as Europeans, how disconnected from your country do you need to be to make such films?
— Sushant Mehta (@SushantNMehta) May 14, 2022
I love @iamsrk but this series with Indian kids playing as Europeans in 80s is the most disconnected show ever planned. Zero interest raised . It’s like few American kids playing malgudi days with hawai backdrop! #Archies https://t.co/jJW3P2DiZb
— Insignificant Man (@srvnsrju) May 15, 2022
Nepotism debate aside, I’m more concerned that they tried to make a group of Indian kids look white https://t.co/mKvDOFudVu
— cher (@gcrazyxb) May 14, 2022
#BoycottBollywood
Ridiculous to see Indian people faking western culture from 1900s I mean common grow up showing how westernized you are won’t change your skin tone to Caucasian you’ll still remain brown lol .. stop this propaganda of spreading unnecessary western culture https://t.co/ZK3q4puQsz— Yash 🇮🇳🇨🇦 (@Patelthepatriot) May 14, 2022
They said You either die colonized or live long enough to become your colonizers https://t.co/bIK5YEcNTr
— ✧* ✿சுவேதா✿* ･ﾟ✧* (@Shwetizle) May 14, 2022
Bridgerton season 2 had more Indian representation than this https://t.co/OmfXKR5tji
— Manahil Saeed 🇵🇰 (@manahil__saeed) May 14, 2022
Found Zoya Aktar's screening criteria tool
👇👇👇👇👇
🤣🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/67UWSey7E7 pic.twitter.com/OIL9itYbV3
— Varun Maturkar (@MaturkarVarun) May 15, 2022
Sun is out. Looks like they never spent out in sun. All are white, if there was no background hindi song then it could easily pass as foreign film. This perfect rich OCs gaze where they don't have friends of colour. Purely aesthetics with nepotism.
Bahut struggle hai inka bhi. https://t.co/sSYMvgmSw0— 🖤 Kaala Seth 🖤 (@4m_raj) May 14, 2022
a combination of: instagram stories from rich kid's aesthetic 21st birthday party + ad for H&M's new retro collection + Pinterest moodboard of that one friend whose parents wouldn't let them go to NIFT + that one guy with the Bhagyaraj-style beret https://t.co/XZ5gxny9V4
— Akaash Preetham (@akaashpreetham) May 15, 2022
Oh wow South Bombay kids pretending to be white people
So exciting https://t.co/MA6W33MIiM— Sreejan (@losblancos2305) May 14, 2022
What elite Indians are these that don't look desi AT ALL! 😭😭 https://t.co/PxeGutjhPi
— Aru (@cutegalaru) May 14, 2022
In my opinion, Zoya Akhtar has already made it clear that the film is an adaptation of the Archies comics. This means that the characters in the film will be resembling the comic characters. If the characters would have been dressed in salwar suits and kurta-pyjamas, wouldn’t the audience be complaining that the film isn’t true to the comics?
What do you think?