Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar recently shared a poster as well as trailer of her upcoming Netflix movie 'The Archies' which stars many popular Bollywood star kids. The film features Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor and Agastya Nanda among others. While Bollywood has been facing severe criticism from the Indian public about nepotism, this new teaser has faced a different form of backlash online.
Many users were quick to point out the influence "western culture" has on this trailer. One user wrote, “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.”
#BoycottBollywood
— Yash ???????????????? (@Patelthepatriot) May 14, 2022
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
Another user also agreed pointing out the fact that the Indian actors looked like they were from the West writing, “Nepotism debate aside, I'm more concerned that they tried to make a group of Indian kids look white.”
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
Another user added to it by writing, “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?”
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
The reactions towards the trailer also veered towards humourous with one Twitter user writing “bhay this looks like a Myntra autumn sale ad”.
bhay this looks like a Myntra autumn sale ad ???????????????? https://t.co/cyFPdrJjwI
— haarbor ???? (@harbir29) May 14, 2022
Zoya Akhtar announced her association with the project in an Instagram post in 2021. The announcement was designed to resemble pages of a comic book, culminating in the characters staring at a board that says, “The Archies, a film by Zoya Akhtar. Coming to Netflix.” In the caption, she wrote, “Archie and the Crew are about to get Down and Desi! 'The Archies'. A coming-of-age musical drama directed by me. Coming soon to Netflix.”
Created by John L Goldwater and artist Bob Montana in 1941, the character Archie Andrews first appeared in the Pep Comics and soon became an iconic character in pop culture across the world. Characters from The Archie comics have been immortalised by several adaptions of films and cartoon series in various countries and languages.
