economic liberation is familiar with. The travails of Archie, Vernica, Betty, Jughead and others based in the fictional town of Riverdale will now be a full length musical film on OTT.
For Zoya Akhtar who was also part of the writing team which featured Reema Kangti and Ayesha Devitre it was a trip down memory lane. She said, “Archies was an escape, it was the only world I could relate to. It gave us an insight to a different world that was so different from ours”. For Reema Kagti it was different. She said, “My parents I know read the comics. When the movie was offered I jumped and said yes. Then I start worrying, wondering how we do it?” Zoya said, “We wondered where we could do it. It could be done in Goa or in a hill station like Ooty”. She said the milieu was western and it could have been shot in Goa which had already been featured beautifully in so many Bollywood movies.”
Speaking about the writing process Reema said they agreed to keep the characters as they were. They also agreed to make a period film and go back in time when life was a bit simpler in the US.
Jon Goldwater the CEO and Publisher of Arches who was part of the interaction said they kept it authentic and he hoped everyone else loved it as much as he did.
When asked if they were sure it was authentic by the moderator Rajeev Masand, Reema said it was because they had added layers to the characters. The movie Zoya said had to work on various layers. It had to work with the older generation who grew up reading it, those who were not aware of it, the generation now who would be interacting for the first time.
Jon said he had heard of the duo who he said were world famous and was confident they would do a good job and they had not disappointed him.
The important part of casting, Zoya said, took several months. She said no part was changed for any selected cast member. Speaking about it being a musical, she said it was part of our syntax and music was universal. She said a couple of songs were taken from an Anglo Indian band and they were part of the movie.
Speaking of the duration of the shoot, Zoya said they spent 4-5 months in Ooty and it was 12 hr shoots and it was lovely because it was so green and they would come back to the room not feeling tired. She said it was undeniable there was a certain innocence in the time that was depicted
