‘I was actually shaking before I did that. I’d been skating for so long, it was frustrating”— Suhana Khan, daughter of Shah Rukh Khan, has revealed in a video comprising behind-the-scenes moments from the shooting of Sunoh, the first track from Zoya Akhtar’s upcoming Netflix film The Archies.
Shared by the makers on Friday, the four-minute-21-second-long video also reveals the director’s and producer’s take on the song, which was released on October 20. In the video, Zoya said the song gives viewers a preliminary idea about Archie and his gang in Riverdale, revealing that they went for a “storybook” approach rather than a direct comic book adaptation while shooting the film.
“Archies to us represented a very innocent era,” said writer-producer Reema Kagti, adding that setting the film in the 1960s allowed them to depict the Anglo-Indian community in an idyllic hill station.
Javed Akhtar, who has penned the lyrics of Sunoh, said he had to “forget” his stock of vocabulary to write the song in a language that would suit the way the young characters communicate in the film.
Photography director Nikos Andritsakis said they had to “start from scratch” in order to “reinvent” the world of Archies. He also added that he wanted the film to have a texture that would feel “fresh” but at the same time wanted “a look towards the past”.
Music supervisor Ankur Tewari mentioned that the music video of Sunoh was the first thing they shot for the film. He also mentioned they did not use the voice of Agastya Nanda, who plays the titular role, for the song since he was singing off-key.
Khushi Kapoor, who plays Betty in the film, said the makers managed to find a “cool space” to figure out her character’s dressing style while filming Sunoh. Vedang Raina talked about how it was a “hero moment” for him as his character Reggie donned a leather jacket and waited in a cab for his girlfriend.
Aditi Dot, who plays Ethel Muggs and also contributed towards the lyrics of the song, summed up the meaning behind the song, “The whole thing about Sunoh is that we’re just announcing that this is us, listen to us, we are not going to take no for an answer and this is our story.”
The Archies will arrive on Netflix on December 7.