DOUBLE DUTY

Filmmakers ZOYA AKHTAR and REEMA KAGTI spill the beans on THE ARCHIES, their ability to tell stories that MATTER, and other exciting PROJECTS in the works.

- SHUBHANGI JINDAL

Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s respective filmmaking journeys started long before they teamed up professionally. Right from their individual directorial debuts with Zoya’s Luck by Chance (2009) and Reema’s Honeymoon Travels Private Limited (2006) to co-directing genre-bending hits such as Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011), Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), Gully Boy (2019) as well as the highly acclaimed digital series, Made in Heaven (2019), the unstoppable duo has been an advocate of powerful storytelling in cinema.

Zoya and Reema’s brand of uncoventional yet realistic narratives—arguably ahead of its time in the early 2000s— has become far more palatable to mainstream Indian audiences thanks to their production company, Tiger Baby Films, which they co-founded in 2015. Setting the tone for experimental cinema, their films span across multiple genres to dismantle patriarchal mindsets but never in a way that feels didactic.

Aiming to create a cinematic experience that is more than what meets the eye, this duo has, time and again, stripped away from the traditional filmmaking to bring forth stories that are vulnerable, poignant, and relatable at the same time.

Harper’s Bazaar: How did the idea of creating the Indian version of The Archies come to life?

Zoya Akhtar: I got approached by Netflix India and that’s how the film came to us. They had leased the IP and The Archies wanted their first feature made out of India. The owner of The Archies, John Goldwater, has a pretty special connection with India, and we were meant to produce it. We wondered how we could adapt it and still retain the original essence of the beloved comic, and what it meant to us growing up.