'The Archies': Zoya Akhtar Reveals Javed Akhtar Had To Forget 85 Percent Of His Vocabulary To Write The Lyrics Of The Album

Zoya Akhtar's directorial 'The Archies' released on Netflix today, on December 7.  Not only the movie but also the cast which includes three star kids has become the talking point all over. The premiere of the movie was held recently and it was attended by the who's who of Bollywood. 'The Archies' reviews are out and once again Zoya has hit the bull's eye. Everyone is showering the film with love and appreciation. Farhan Akhtar and Javed Akhtar have contributed a lot to Zoya’s directorial. While her father wrote the lyrics of the album, Farhan penned the Hindi dialogues of the film. 

Sharing her working experience with her brother, Zoya told News18, “He took a blueprint and made it into his syntax and the syntax of that particular language and the simplicity of the Archie comics. Getting the corniness and humour of the comics was tough but he brought that out really well. He was the one who introduced the phrase ‘Va Va Voom’ from the comics into the song.”

The 'Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara' director was also all praise for her father Javed Akhtar. She said, “He can write lyrics for a film like a Lagaan and a Rock On, and that’s the beauty. Having said that, it was a bit tough brief. It’s sometimes very tough to be simple. We needed the lyrics to sound like 1960s’ teenage voice. It needed to be Anglo-Indian and so, it couldn’t be very heavy on Urdu or Hindi language. It had to be simple, communicative and conversation-like and fit into a rock-and-roll meter.”

Zoya also went on to reveal that Javed Akhtar told her that he had to forget 85 percent of his vocabulary to write the lyrics of the album. “On certain songs, he also collaborated with Dot, who’s a musician in her early twenties. He wrote the Hindi lines and she wrote the English ones. I think it worked out really well,” she added. 

'The Archies' is an Indian adaptation of the comic series set in the fictional town of Riverdale. Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor and Agastya Nanda have made their debut with the film. Dot, Mihir Ahuja, Vedang Raina and Yuvraj Menda are the primary cast of the film.