Bollywood Hungama OTT India Fest Day 2 EXCLUSIVE: Dot has written two songs for The Archies; got to work with Javed Akhtar: “He has all this experience and his artistry”

At the exclusive launch, Dot (Aditi), who will play the role of Ethel, talked about getting an opportunity to not only act but also write two songs for the movie.

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

October 23, 2023 - 10:46 AM IST

Netflix's The Archies released its first song 'Sunoh,' featuring Dot (Aditi), Agastya Nanda, Khushi Kapoor, Mihir Ahuja, Suhana Khan, Vedang Raina and Yuvraj Menda, at Bollywood Hungama OTT India Fest Day 2 on October 19, 2023. At the exclusive launch, Dot (Aditi), who will play the role of Ethel, talked about getting an opportunity to not only act but also write two songs for the movie.

Bollywood Hungama OTT India Fest Day 2 EXCLUSIVE: Dot has written two songs for The Archies; got to work with Javed Akhtar: “He has all this experience and his artistry”

Speaking on stage, Dot said that there wasn’t any plan to make an acting debut. However, Zoya Akhtar had seen her music work and called her up for The Archies. Recalling being cast in the Zoya Akhtar directorial, she said, “It was absolutely not a plan at all [to act]. It happened completely by chance. I was actually living in Wales studying for my masters, which I'm still doing. And I was a musician and I was living my life casually. And there comes Zoya. Apparently, she'd also been following my music for a long time. She approached me for one of my songs. She wanted it to be in a film. And that's how we met and we were on a video chat. I was all the way in Wales and she was all the way back in Bombay. And she said ‘Hmm, do you act? Will you audition?’ I was like, ‘Okay. And yeah!’ I didn't know what I was jumping into. It was just this random thing that happened to me. And then I had to like pour my soul into it. And I had to just jump into it headfirst.”

Talking about writing songs for the movie and working with Javed Akhtar, she added, “So Javed sahab basically wrote all the lyrics, in collaboration with Ankur Tewari as well. I did some of the English lines that had to be interspersed here and there. So it was really cool. We used to meet up at Zoya’s house, have a little bit of tea and sit together. Sometimes you'd meet at Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s studios, and we would just brainstorm. Each of us had sort of something that we brought to the table. Javed sahab has all this experience and he has his artistry. Ankur has his knowledge of the singer, songwriter, industry in the world and and then I have my young perspective. So Zoya was just there steering the ship and helping us work towards a vision of her own.”

This live-action musical transports viewers on an enchanting journey back to the captivating era of the 1960s, set in the fictional hill town of Riverdale. The film is produced by Netflix India, Tiger Baby, Archie Comics and Graphic India.

The Archies will be released worldwide on Netflix only on December 7, 2023.