Zoya Akhtar’s advice to Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor and Agastya Nanda: ‘If you do your job well, you will be unstoppable’

Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter, Suhana Khan, Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson, Agastya Nanda, and Sridevi and Boney Kapoor’s daughter, Khushi Kapoor, are set to make their debut with Zoya Akhtar’s next directorial venture, The Archies, which is set to release on Netflix soon.

Also read: Zoya Akhtar's The Archies coming soon on Netflix 

The star cast of the film - which also includes Vedang Raina, Yuvraj Menda, Mihir Ahuja and Aditi Saigal - were recently spotted at the Netflix's Tudum fan event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, creating a buzz among the audience for their upcoming film. The recently launched trailer of the film has also added fuel to the excitement by taking the audience back in time.

In the last couple of years, the nepotism debate has been the focal point of many Bollywood controversies and the audience is keen to see what makes Suhana, Agastya and Khushi stand apart from the already launched star kids in the industry.

While speaking to Film Companion in an interview, Zoya spoke about this issue and how she trained her cast for dealing with negativity and nepotism after the film release. The director said, “See at the end of the day, we all grow up. We all grow up wanting to follow our dreams. When you grow up in a house with parents you admire, you just end up doing the things they do. It is as simple as that. Who is anyone to say, you can’t do this, you can’t do that.”

She also spoke about the importance of working hard. “You have to roll with the punches. You have to go out there, you have to keep your head down and work hard. At the end of the day, if you do your job well, you will be unstoppable,” the filmmaker said.

Zoya also spoke about her process of dealing with these emotions and said that she just puts herself in a bubble and focuses on what she has to do. She believes that if she does her job well and honestly, it will find its audience. She says that you can’t control what people think if they like you or they don’t. You can just control what you put out. So that’ what you should do-focus.

Also read: Dahaad makers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti: We watch crime thrillers incessantly 

Speaking about the shooting process, she said that the cast started by reading the comics, watching musicals of the 60s and undergoing workshops. Zoya said the actors were also trained in how to act for the camera and understand the technicalities of it.

“They had to read the comics obviously, because it’s not their generation, I gave them countless films to watch from the period, teenage films, musicals, just different tonalities.  They did acting workshops, dance workshops, singing workshops, they had to do skating, swimming and cycling.”

The Archies is inspired form the Archies Comics and will take the Indian audience to the city of Riverdale.