In celebration of Zoya Akhtar’s newest film, “The Archies.” the following Q&A is a part of Netflix and Brown Girl Magazine’s first-ever community-driven ‘Culture Creator’ screening series — featuring community leaders doing impactful work in New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
When I texted my dad requesting him to be my plus-one to the screening of Netflix’s newest film, “The Archies,” he could not believe something like this had been produced. Zoya Akhtar’s latest piece of work, set in 1960’s India in the fictional hill station town called Riverdale, is a coming-of-age musical following the lives of the town’s favorite set of teenagers — Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie, Ethel and Dilton. Seen through the lens of an Anglo-Indian community filled with Indian pride, “The Archies” explores advocacy, friendship, freedom, love, heartbreak and rebellion.
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The film was an opportunity for individuals across generations, ages, and parts of the world to connect with one another. “The Archies” does an impressive job of illustrating how a group of friends, no matter how young, with diverse identities and lived experiences can connect and lift each other up. While focusing on the intricacies of the town’s individual back stories and relationships, the film puts great emphasis on the value of political advocacy and community building. Tastefully tailored for a multigenerational audience, Akhtar goes above and beyond to show how advocacy and social justice can be accessed from multiple points and carried out through different mediums.
[Read Related: South Asians in Entertainment: Everything That Made a Buzz Pre-Fall]
Grateful to see the Chicago community travel far and wide to fill the theater to its max capacity on a cold, rainy Tuesday in December, the best part of the screening, in my opinion, was the Q&A that followed. Post-screening, culture creators and wife-husband duo Palak Sheth and Ankur Varma sat down with Chicago-native and podcast host, Ritika Agrawal, in front of the audience for a short deep-dive on the film and their work.
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Sheth has worked in the non-profit, local government, and tech sector in a variety of legal and policy capacities. She is currently the head of privacy policy at Instagram and Threads, where she works with cross-functional teams across the company to ensure they’re developing and building products in a way that is mindful of privacy and public policy concerns. Varma is a licensed clinical professional counselor who supports the mental health of clients through coaching and therapy services. While he focuses on helping clients achieve wellness, balance, and a healthy mindset in life, Varma advocates to create safe spaces for South Asian men to explore and address their mental health.
What did you think of the film overall?
Palak: I think it was it was just like Zoya Akhtar said it would be, ‘a big hug.’ It was just very positive and warm, but also a really bold choice. I really think it’s pretty personal considering I grew up reading The Archie’s comics. I think to see it reimagined with a Bollywood cast was unique, and I encourage that kind of boldness.
Ankur: I had my doubts because my Spotify and my Netflix is all true crime content. This was a very different vibe from what I’m used to. But there’s multiple messages here and I think it was good for me to kind of step out of my own comfort zone. At the same time, it’s felt surreal and familiar because The Archie’s is the one comic I would beg my parents to buy me from the grocery store. I had forgotten all about the comics and just the world I used to escape to when I was younger, so it was a welcome escape from the day-to-day.
What character do you think you resonated with the most and why?
Ankur: I resonated a lot with Jughead especially when I think about my youth. I never felt like I really had found my voice. Who am I? Who do I have legions to? What I think is so powerful about Jughead’s character is when he speaks to people, people listen.
Palak: I think it’s actually like a combination of several characters. I found Ethel to be really raw and real. I appreciated how direct she was with everybody and how well she spoke her mind. I also found myself relating to Reggie because I appreciated his way of communicating through comedy and humor; he continued to show good moral from start to finish.
What inspired you, Ankur, to create Brown Man Therapy?
Ankur: Through my work in mental health and therapy, I quickly realized when somebody is depressed or anxious, social media is not typically helping them resolve their issues or battles. But I wanted a chance to reframe and take back a space that comes with a lot of baggage. It’s important for us to have loud and healthy advocacy-based voices on social media, and that’s why Brown Man therapy was founded.
From a Brown Man Therapy lens, what are your thoughts on how men in the South Asian community are treated versus women. How do you think our community can eradicate these stereotypes?
Ankur: I think the idea of this movie is, small steps can make a change at the end of the day. Watching this movie reminds me that, you know, change happens slowly and gradually. And so, if we’re going to make changes to gender-based stereotypes and socializations, then it will happen one person and one family at a time. I think the more we talk about this and the more that we call it out, the more that we’re going to impact that change.
Whether it was advocating for women’s rights or empowering the South Asian community, you’ve balanced this at your workplace and beyond. Tell us more about how you wear multiple hats and continue to balance it all?
Palak: When I joined Instagram almost five years ago, I was shocked to find out there wasn’t an Asian-American Pacific Islander group at Instagram, which I thought was so weird given how many Asians generally work in tech. In 2019, I would push for initiatives like celebrating Diwali on and off the platform with stickers or influencer campaigns, but that came with so much internal advocacy. While advocating to see more South Asian representation at Instagram wasn’t a part of my day-to-day job, a lot of my colleagues saw my efforts. Together, we saw a greater need and a gap that needed to be filled. Someone has to start the efforts, right?
Based on your decade long journey in therapy, what are some common traits you see in today’s generation and what advice would you have for them?
Ankur: For the first several years of my career in therapy, I worked a lot with children and adolescents. Adolescence, we think of as the most confusing, difficult time. But think about when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. If you were to open up the cocoon, you would find a bunch of mush because the caterpillar completely disintegrates and then builds back up as a butterfly. I really equate that phase of the caterpillar being in the cocoon to adolescence.
The advice I have for you, is to stay young. When I work with adults, one of the things that we talk about is what’s something from your youth that you have forgotten and you used to love. Something that you used to do that would bring you joy. All of us should remember a little bit about our childhood dreams ad what we cared about or wanted from life. I think it’s not too late for all of us to tap into our own inner child because it’ll help us keep going.
Did you both have any nostalgic moments while watching the film?
Palak: I feel The Archies’ comics were an unspoken, iconic part of our childhood. When I posted about today’s screening on my Instagram Stories a few days ago, the number of people who reached out to say, ‘Oh my God, I used to go to the grocery store and beg my parents to buy me the comics.’ I vividly remember reading the whole series during my summers in India while my cousins were still in school. I realized recently The Archies were a core memory of my childhood and reliving it today in this way feels surreal.
This is the one comic series that resonates with so many of us and our parents, and now to see it on the big screen reimagined completely with South Asian characters, it feels like a wild leap. If you grew up reading the comics, you don’t expect Archies to look like or sound like what Zoya and the film crew recreated with such nuance and love.
How can we continue to uplift and have important conversations around mental health and advocacy?
Palak: I love this question because I work for a big company and it takes a lot of individual people from different departments to push the company in the right direction. And I think similarly, with Netflix, investing in South Asian content and the community, we have to give them even more reasons to continue that investment so we can continue to see and amplify our stories being told through different mediums.
Ankur: When you go outside of your comfort zone, you actually expand your comfort zone. And when you expand your comfort zone, you become more capable and empowered to make the change that you want. And if we think about the group of friends from the movie, not everybody has to be an Archie. Archie can’t sing without a base, without a drummer, and without that second guitarist, and his music won’t matter if nobody came to listen. I think when finding your role or place in this world, it doesn’t always have to be the front and center, especially if that’s not where your comfort zone is yet, but you can still make a difference and your voice can have an impact.
Between “The Archies” screening and the Q&A with Sheth and Varma, the message here is clear — doing good comes in many mediums and formats. No matter your role, your context, or the matter at hand, advocacy can take place in a way that matters most to you.
Photos from the Chicago screening can be found here, courtesy of @tembotones. Download pin is 3137.
