Archies Director Zoya Akhtar’s reimagination of the beloved Archie Comics is set in an Anglo-Indian hill station in 1964. It’s poised to take viewers on a nostalgic journey filled with rock ‘n’ roll, teenage antics, and much more. The highly-anticipated release on December 7 promises to be the social event of the Riverdale school year.
Set in ’60s India in a fictional town called Riverdale, The Archies is a coming-of-age film following the lives of the town’s favorite set of teenagers — Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie, Ethel and Dilton. Seen through the lens of the unique Anglo-Indian community, The Archies explores friendship, freedom, love, heartbreak and rebellion.
“Sugar, Sugar” was recorded by the original Archies), these Archies will also make their mark in song. The cast even gave the audience a brief sample of one of their performances.
The film adaptation of the comics was under development sinceJust as their predecessors did (quintessential earworm March 2018, before Akhtar’s involvement as the director and producer of the film, officially announced in November 2021. Following an extensive pre-production and casting process, the film was shot during April–December 2022 in two concurrent schedules across Ooty and Mumbai. Nikos Andritsakis handled the film’s cinematography, with the original score composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy and Jim Satya, the former also composed the songs with Ankur Tewari, The Islanders and Saigal.
The Archies would mark the debut of Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan and Boney Kapoor’s younger daughter Khushi Kapoor, as well as Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda. On May 2022, an announcement video for the film revealed the other principal cast members,Mihir Ahuja, Aditi “Dot” Saigal, Yuvraj Menda and Vedang Raina.Except the former, the other three also made their debut with this film.
Akhtar also stated that auditioning young actors took them more than year, as she wanted new cast without having any past experience. They tested everyone who did want to act and some did not want. Both Nanda, Suhana and Khushi gave auditions before their selection.[25] Apart from other principal cast members in the background—Saigal was a singer, whereas Raina was a model and musician who had not thought about acting, Suhana and Kushi had interest in acting; the former had starred in few short films.
The film’s soundtrack was composed by Ankur Tewari, The Islanders, Aditi “Dot” Saigal and Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, while the lyrics were written by Javed Akhtar, Tewari and Saigal. The soundtrack was released by Sony Music India on 25 November 2023.