EXCLUSIVE! Not Just Bollywood | Zoya Aktar on Netflix’s The Archies: ‘Tapping into innocence, simplicity & nostalgia’

Tapping into innocence, nostalgia and simplicity, Zoya Akhtar talks to Firtpost on the making of The Archies and why it is so close to her heart. There is something very unique about Zoya’s artistic vision. The film celebrates youth and the universal theme of love and companionship.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

 How was the whole experience like and preparing the kids for this film?

 The experience of shooting The Archies was incredible, especially creating that world, working with newcomers, having this amazingly talented crew. Prepping the kids was not something that I did alone. I had a lot of help. I worked with good actor-trainers like Pooja Swarup, Ishina Khalif, Atul Mungia. There were people who helped with the music and music training. Then we had to train the very young cast to work on a set, catch light and walk across a track. So, there were a lot of people involved, it wasn’t just me who helped in shaping this film.

Your journey back to Archies comics… What was it like?

It was like tapping into innocence, tapping into simplicity and you just realise how nostalgic you are for it. I am a Bombay girl and I grew up in Bandra and I would cycle all over Hillroad and go to a library, rent Archie comics, read them in a corner. It was a different time and to be able to bring some of that simplicity back.

In many schools during our days I remember comics were not allowed in school libraries and as for Archies was like a forbidden fruit which we couldn’t bite on to it… so reading this particular comic was kind of liberating. What was the experience like for you when you re-visited Archies?

In Bombay everybody read Archies like you went to the dentist they were there. You went to the salon, you went to people’s homes too, the Archies were always there. Though I am from a film family, we never brought film magazines home. But Archies were there. It was never actually forbidden, but it gave an experience of the life of regular teenagers, no super heroes. So, there were times when I felt as a child that my aspiration to grow older and have a gang of friends were those quirky dresses and drink milkshakes.

Coming to the style of the film, the costumes were brilliant. What was the research that went behind that?

The research that went behind was the mixture of the period in India and the Anglo Indian community. So, what happened was in a hill station in India in the late 50s and early 60s, fashion wise not many things could come in so easily because of the location. We did a lot of research and met a lot of Anglo Indian people and consultants who were very kind to share their family photos and on Instagram there is a page called the Anglo Indian stories, so that page made it easy for us to check out the dresses, the hair styles. And we also wanted to make it a little magical with the print, tomes and colours. We wanted to make it look like a visual comic or a visual story book.

I wanted to evoke that era and I wanted to have that kind of framing. If you see the movies in the late fifties and sixties, there is a particular lensing to it. And the audience may not recognise it, but they will feel it. It holds you and gives you the space to imagine and go back to the world. Nothing was phonetic, there was a silence and a pause and that romance in that wait which we wanted to bring out.

Tell us about the boot camps and the preparation that the cast had to go through.

 When you are a newcomer kid, yes you are talented and you have ambitions, but it is a very different deal to walk on the set and have a massive camera on your face and so many people sitting in silence with all eyes on you. And you have to perform. So, I wanted the kids to be so trained by the time they come that nothing intimidates them. So, they went through a boot camp. They did dance class for six months and also learn singing classes so that they can open up their body language. They all learn skating, singing, swimming, to play the guitar and to learn the technicalities with the camera. The cast actually had to put in a lot of hard work.