Zoya Akhtar (The Archies), Fawzia Mirza (Queen of My Dreams), and Roshan Sethi (A Nice Indian Boy) are set to join the 1497 Features Lab as Mentors.
Returning for its fourth year, the nonprofit 1497’s annual Features Lab will once again offer robust mentorship, script development, and industry access to elevate and advance the careers of screenwriters of South Asian descent. After expanding the Lab to a fully in-person format last year, this year’s program will build on that success with an intensive Retreat and subsequent Pitch Day. The Lab Retreat will take place this October 23-28, 2024 in Malibu.
The 1497 Features Lab, their signature impact program, entails three rounds of rigorous evaluation by independent Selection Committees to ultimately discover three Mentees to invest in. Each Mentee is then paired with a pod of Mentors – comprised of an established filmmaker, producer, industry representative, and a 1497 Features Lab Alum – from whom they...
Returning for its fourth year, the nonprofit 1497’s annual Features Lab will once again offer robust mentorship, script development, and industry access to elevate and advance the careers of screenwriters of South Asian descent. After expanding the Lab to a fully in-person format last year, this year’s program will build on that success with an intensive Retreat and subsequent Pitch Day. The Lab Retreat will take place this October 23-28, 2024 in Malibu.
The 1497 Features Lab, their signature impact program, entails three rounds of rigorous evaluation by independent Selection Committees to ultimately discover three Mentees to invest in. Each Mentee is then paired with a pod of Mentors – comprised of an established filmmaker, producer, industry representative, and a 1497 Features Lab Alum – from whom they...
- 4/29/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
In a new uInterivew, Indian director Zoya Akhtar spoke about her new film The Archies and how it is connected to Indian cinema.
Akhtar created the movie after meeting the founder of Graphic India, Sharad Devarajan, to discuss a separate comic.
“I just by the by mentioned that I was an Archie fan growing up, I grew up reading the Archie comics,” she told uInterview founder Erik Meers exclusively. “The next thing I know he told me it was leased to Netflix and, next thing I know, Netflix calls me and says would you be interested, and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
She explained how the Archie comics were a vital part of her childhood in India and described it as her “portal to America.”
When creating the plotline of the film, Akhtar made sure that it reached the original audience and reached a newer one as well.
Akhtar created the movie after meeting the founder of Graphic India, Sharad Devarajan, to discuss a separate comic.
“I just by the by mentioned that I was an Archie fan growing up, I grew up reading the Archie comics,” she told uInterview founder Erik Meers exclusively. “The next thing I know he told me it was leased to Netflix and, next thing I know, Netflix calls me and says would you be interested, and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
She explained how the Archie comics were a vital part of her childhood in India and described it as her “portal to America.”
When creating the plotline of the film, Akhtar made sure that it reached the original audience and reached a newer one as well.
- 12/13/2023
- by Nina Hauswirth
- Uinterview
Amid Ongoing Nepotism Debate, Javed Akhtar Lauds Agastya Nanda For The Archies, Comparing Him To Rishi Kapoor!
Amid the ongoing debate around nepotism with the launch of three star kids in The Archies, Javed Akhtar has lauded Agastya Nanda for his debut in the Zoya Akhtar directorial. Akhtar said that while he tends to face criticism while praising his daughter Zoya, he has no reservations about admiring Agastya. Calling him one of the most brilliant emerging talents in the Hindi film industry since Rishi Kapoor over half a century ago, the noted lyricist emphasized that, like the late actor, Nanda also represents a more ‘masoom’ alternative to the prevalent macho image that heroes portray in today’s cinema.
Agastya Nanda is the grandson of megastar Amitabh Bachchan and the son of Shweta Bachchan Nanda-Nikhil Nanda. Alongside Agastya, The Archies also marks the debut of Sridevi-Boney Kapoor’s daughter Khushi Kapoor...
Amid the ongoing debate around nepotism with the launch of three star kids in The Archies, Javed Akhtar has lauded Agastya Nanda for his debut in the Zoya Akhtar directorial. Akhtar said that while he tends to face criticism while praising his daughter Zoya, he has no reservations about admiring Agastya. Calling him one of the most brilliant emerging talents in the Hindi film industry since Rishi Kapoor over half a century ago, the noted lyricist emphasized that, like the late actor, Nanda also represents a more ‘masoom’ alternative to the prevalent macho image that heroes portray in today’s cinema.
Agastya Nanda is the grandson of megastar Amitabh Bachchan and the son of Shweta Bachchan Nanda-Nikhil Nanda. Alongside Agastya, The Archies also marks the debut of Sridevi-Boney Kapoor’s daughter Khushi Kapoor...
- 12/12/2023
- by Shivani Negi
- KoiMoi
Zoya Akhtar is no stranger to contradiction.
The Indian writer, producer, and director grew up in a film family, the daughter of poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar and child star-turned screenwriter Honey Irani. She grew up surrounded by the arts and was poised to enter the Hindi film industry — but when the time came to make her first feature, it took years.
“It took me a really long time to get a movie made in India, and I’m from the industry, so I had access to everybody,” Akhtar told IndieWire in New York City. “It was because I wanted to make a film like ‘Luck by Chance.’ It wasn’t the norm. People weren’t doing ensembles at that time. People weren’t gray as characters, male actors didn’t wanna play a character that was gray. They didn’t get the irony of the film, in a sense.
The Indian writer, producer, and director grew up in a film family, the daughter of poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar and child star-turned screenwriter Honey Irani. She grew up surrounded by the arts and was poised to enter the Hindi film industry — but when the time came to make her first feature, it took years.
“It took me a really long time to get a movie made in India, and I’m from the industry, so I had access to everybody,” Akhtar told IndieWire in New York City. “It was because I wanted to make a film like ‘Luck by Chance.’ It wasn’t the norm. People weren’t doing ensembles at that time. People weren’t gray as characters, male actors didn’t wanna play a character that was gray. They didn’t get the irony of the film, in a sense.
- 12/8/2023
- by Proma Khosla
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Trailer has dropped for Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben adaptation Fool Me Once.
The series stars Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar, Richard Armitage, Joanna Lumley, Emmett J. Scanlan and Dino Fetscher and is the latest in a long line of Coben Netflix shows.
It follows Maya (Keegan), who is trying to come to terms with the brutal murder of her husband, Joe (Armitage). But when Maya installs a nanny-cam to keep an eye on her young daughter, she is shocked to see a man she recognizes in her house, her husband, who she thought was dead. Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce (Akhtar) leads the homicide investigation into Joe’s death while grappling with secrets of his own.
Netflix has already made adaptations of Coben novels including The Stranger, Safe and Stay Close via a major deal stuck in 2018.
Fool Me Once is produced by Nicola Shindler’s Quay Street, which is...
The series stars Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar, Richard Armitage, Joanna Lumley, Emmett J. Scanlan and Dino Fetscher and is the latest in a long line of Coben Netflix shows.
It follows Maya (Keegan), who is trying to come to terms with the brutal murder of her husband, Joe (Armitage). But when Maya installs a nanny-cam to keep an eye on her young daughter, she is shocked to see a man she recognizes in her house, her husband, who she thought was dead. Detective Sergeant Sami Kierce (Akhtar) leads the homicide investigation into Joe’s death while grappling with secrets of his own.
Netflix has already made adaptations of Coben novels including The Stranger, Safe and Stay Close via a major deal stuck in 2018.
Fool Me Once is produced by Nicola Shindler’s Quay Street, which is...
- 12/7/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
When Zoya Akhtar was approached some years ago by Graphic India to see if she was interested in adapting American comic The Phantom, her first question was whether the Archies comics were available for adaptation.
Like many Indians of her generation, she had been an avid reader of the comics as a child: “I remember cycling to the library to get the double digest, then would come back home and nobody could get a word out of me, I was just reading that comic,” Akhtar tells Deadline.
She says the appeal of the comics is that they were a portal into the West at a time when India was still not totally liberalized and there was no cable and satellite TV to provide a window into the wider world. “It showed us everything about Western culture – how people dressed, what they were listening to, what food they were eating, so...
Like many Indians of her generation, she had been an avid reader of the comics as a child: “I remember cycling to the library to get the double digest, then would come back home and nobody could get a word out of me, I was just reading that comic,” Akhtar tells Deadline.
She says the appeal of the comics is that they were a portal into the West at a time when India was still not totally liberalized and there was no cable and satellite TV to provide a window into the wider world. “It showed us everything about Western culture – how people dressed, what they were listening to, what food they were eating, so...
- 12/7/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Leave it to Zoya Akhtar to get you excited about a film about rich kids and their little naive problems, and then take it all away in a 2-hour, 23-minute-long snooze fest. I really wanted to like this film; in fact, I’ve been defending it since the trailers dropped, just to have an objective viewpoint on it all, but now I simply feel embarrassed. The Archies is set in the fictional Anglo-Indian town of Riverdale, somewhere in the north of India. The film follows 17-year-old Archie and his friends (mostly the two girls he’s confused about) as they navigate through friendship, romance, and a real-world problem—the future of their beloved park! As I put those words down, it makes me realize how true to them the film actually is. I would like to say that there are some enjoyable parts in this film, maybe the two dance...
- 12/7/2023
- by Ruchika Bhat
- Film Fugitives
The first image that the word ‘Bollywood’ conjures up is one of song and dance. And Netflix’s “The Archies” promises to be a prime example of that.
“The Archies” is a 1960s-set feature film adaptation of the Archie comics, which are hugely popular on the Indian subcontinent. The musical drama is directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Akhtar and Reema Kagti (“Dahaad”) for Tiger Baby and Sharad Devarajan for Graphic India. It is written by Kagti, Akhtar and Ayesha DeVitre (“Kapoor & Sons”).
Young actors Mihir Ahuja, Dot, Yuvraj Menda and Vedang Raina feature in the film’s cast. The offspring of Bollywood royalty are debuting in the film, including Khushi Kapoor, the daughter of the late actor Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor and sister of Janhvi Kapoor; superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan; and Agastya Nanda, the grandson of revered actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.
“The Archies” is a 1960s-set feature film adaptation of the Archie comics, which are hugely popular on the Indian subcontinent. The musical drama is directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Akhtar and Reema Kagti (“Dahaad”) for Tiger Baby and Sharad Devarajan for Graphic India. It is written by Kagti, Akhtar and Ayesha DeVitre (“Kapoor & Sons”).
Young actors Mihir Ahuja, Dot, Yuvraj Menda and Vedang Raina feature in the film’s cast. The offspring of Bollywood royalty are debuting in the film, including Khushi Kapoor, the daughter of the late actor Sridevi and producer Boney Kapoor and sister of Janhvi Kapoor; superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan; and Agastya Nanda, the grandson of revered actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.
- 12/7/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Based on the American comic book series, The Archies is a film by Zoya Akhtar that successfully blends Hollywood cinema, with Indian culture, feeling distinctively like a film to have been born out of the latter, yet infused with inspiration from classic American teen productions.
To mark the release of this film, which launches on Netflix on December 7th – we had the pleasure of speaking to Akhtar, as she talks about the process of blending cultures and influences, and creating a film that has global appeal. She also talks about the benefit of streaming sites, and how they can help bring accessibility to productions of this nature. She also speaks about working with the cast, and how their wide-eyed enthusiasm for the industry rubbed off on the rest of the crew.
Watch the full interview with Zoya Akhtar here:
Synopsis
Set in 1960s India, Archie and the gang navigate romance,...
To mark the release of this film, which launches on Netflix on December 7th – we had the pleasure of speaking to Akhtar, as she talks about the process of blending cultures and influences, and creating a film that has global appeal. She also talks about the benefit of streaming sites, and how they can help bring accessibility to productions of this nature. She also speaks about working with the cast, and how their wide-eyed enthusiasm for the industry rubbed off on the rest of the crew.
Watch the full interview with Zoya Akhtar here:
Synopsis
Set in 1960s India, Archie and the gang navigate romance,...
- 12/5/2023
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Acclaimed poet, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, who is here to attend the 16th Jaipur Literature Festival (Jlf), said on Friday that Indian cinema is one of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world and hence Indian films should be respected.
Answering a query at a presser on the sidelines of Jlf on the current ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend, Akhtar said, “This ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend will not help. People in India love movies, be it in north, south, west or eastern part of the country. We are a nation of ‘Movie Bhakts’… It is in our DNA to listen to stories, to tell stories, and this has been the trend for ages. Our stories always come along with songs… Hindi films did not invent it. One should respect Hindi cinema.”
“Our films are released in 35-36 countries worldwide. Indian cinema is one of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world. If we start doing a headcount,...
Answering a query at a presser on the sidelines of Jlf on the current ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend, Akhtar said, “This ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend will not help. People in India love movies, be it in north, south, west or eastern part of the country. We are a nation of ‘Movie Bhakts’… It is in our DNA to listen to stories, to tell stories, and this has been the trend for ages. Our stories always come along with songs… Hindi films did not invent it. One should respect Hindi cinema.”
“Our films are released in 35-36 countries worldwide. Indian cinema is one of the strongest goodwill ambassadors in the world. If we start doing a headcount,...
- 1/20/2023
- by News Bureau
- GlamSham
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