Zoya Akhtar confirms she is working on a crime mafia film; recalls Salim-Javed’s writing style and how they didn’t resort to ‘cheap tricks’

Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar confirmed that she is working on the crime mafia film. She also spoke about her father Javed Akhtar and his former screenwriting partner Salim Khan’s writing style. The Archies director is currently busy promoting the docu-drama series Angry Young Men. During a recent interview, the renowned filmmaker also revealed how her father’s work has influenced their work.

In a recent conversation with Indian Express, Zoya Akhtar was asked about the reports that suggested her plans to make a gangster film after The Archies that would mirror Salim-Javed’s writing. In her response, the filmmaker confirmed the same and said that she has been working on the script.

She said, “I’m working on the crime mafia movie! I’m working on the script now. So fingers crossed it comes to something, some weight!”

In addition, the filmmaker also explained how she was inspired by the works of Salim-Javed. The filmmaker made her directorial debut with Luck By Chance in 2009, starring her brother Farhan Akhtar. To illustrate her point, Zoya revealed that the characters of legendary writers were not “black and white” and had obscurity, including their hero.

When asked if there were any specific lessons learned from Salim-Javed’s work, the filmmaker emphasized that their characters had a certain shade of gray. Not everything fits together, which is also reflected in her work.

She admitted that her characters are not entirely black or white, saying, “The fact that they (Salim-Javed) didn’t use cheap tricks, they were never vulgar. That influenced our work. There was also respect for the ensemble. Even if it’s a character that does just one scene, it has to have a certain charm and resonance. Those things came from them.”

Akhtar added that Salim-Javed’s world was male-centric, but even within that, they portrayed women with agency. She went on to point out how those characters would react to stronger women. Even in the stories with men as the protagonists, “none of the women were props,” she said, emphasizing how they all had something to do in the film. “They all had a job, even if it wasn’t explored, there was an identity in them,” she said.

During the conversation, she recounted how her brother Farhan Akhtar had remarked that Parveen Babi’s character in Deewaar was a night owl. However, there was a balance in that relationship and the way they were treated. According to Zoya, the legendary writers never decided to do this, but it “originally” occurred to them.

Furthermore, Angry Young Men director Namrata Rao revealed that their upcoming docu-drama series will explore the gender dynamics in Salim Javed’s writing. She added that both of them openly admit today that they have also messed up the messed up portrayal of women.

She revealed that they have gone into great detail in the series but there were things that the legendary writers were not aware of. They have this introspection as they confess that they might have written the character of Geeta differently. She explained her point and shared how Akhtar pointed out that when Geeta goes to Seeta’s house and aspires to sew and cook like Seeta, he would never write something like that today.

“Why would Geeta want to do that? She’s great the way she is. He said, ‘tab hume pata he nahi tha (we didn’t know then),’ but I would never do that now,” she said.

Angry Young Men is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from August 20.

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