'The Archies' trailer: Netizens slam Netflix for 'faking western culture from 1990s'

Netflix is once again facing flak for 'woke content' after the release of Zoya Akhtar's 'The Archies' trailer. While a section of the internet is criticising the show for 'nepotism', another is blaming them for 'misrepresenting' Indian kids and 'faking' western culture from the 1900s. It is a known fact that the OTT giant's customer base fell by 2,00,000 subscribers during the January-March period. Eminent personalities including Tesla owner Elon Musk has previously called out the OTT platform for its 'woke content' which some deem to be provocative.

Now, The Archies trailer featuring star-kids Khushi Kapoor, Agastya Nanda, and Suhana Khan including others, have garnered similar criticism from netizens.

Netizens call out 'The Archies' for misrepresenting Indian kids

A Twitter user upon seeing the first look poster of The Archies questioned in which decade Indian kids dressed up as shown in the photo. The user then called out Netflix for commissioning a project which appears to be unrelatable for majority of viewers. The user wrote, "In which part of India and in which decade, did teenagers dress up like this. Netflix commissions most shows for 50 woke friends of their executives. Rest of the country has to stretch their imagination to impossible levels to relate".

Another accused the makers of making Indian kids look 'white'. "Nepotism debate aside, I’m more concerned that they tried to make a group of Indian kids look white," said the user. Pointing out the similar issue with changing skin tone, one more articulated, "Ridiculous to see Indian people faking western culture from 1900s I mean common grow up showing how westernized you are won’t change your skin tone to Caucasian you’ll still remain brown lol .. stop this propaganda of spreading unnecessary western culture".

Among the barrage of social media users who were left disappointed with the depiction of western culture, a Twitterati asked if the makers were 'disconnected' from Indian culture. The user shared, "Just saw an ad of ‘The Archies’ by Zoya Akhtar with a handful of star kids dressed as Europeans, how disconnected from your country do you need to be to make such films?" 

Check out more reactions below:

What is Netflix's 'woke content' problem?

In the recent past, the OTT giant has been called out several times for its content by netizens, be it objectifying women as Viking warriors or racist portrayal of white people. Netflix lost some 2,00,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, causing its shares to plunge 25%. The streaming service while addressing the problem predicted another two million subscribers loss in April-June.

Image: Twitter/@NetflixIndia