The Archies: What makes Suhana Khan the perfect Veronica Lodge

The Archies: What makes Suhana Khan the perfect Veronica Lodge

Role Call: Veronica in The Archies is the spoilt, sincere yet misunderstood daughter of a rich self-made man. In many ways, that's Suhana Khan in real life

had both the easiest and toughest role of the lot in Zoya Akhtar's The Archies. She played Veronica Lodge, the sincere yet spoilt daughter of a rich, self-made businessman. As Shah Rukh Khan's daughter, Suhana fits into that description quite well. But in the era where people love to hate on nepo babies, she had to make her individuality seen, heard, and felt – as both an actor and the character

The Archies: What makes Suhana Khan the perfect Veronica Lodge

Unlike previous Zoya Akhtar protagonists with daddy issues who came of age, Suhana wasn't battling a casting coup. Farhan Akhtar's Imran in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) was abandoned by his free-spirited father (Naseeruddin Shah) when he was still in his mother's womb. When he encounters him for the first time in Spain, he comes to terms with his fatherless upbringing, he sees how selfish and insensitive his dad is. “Sorry tab bolna jab dil se nikle (Apologise only when you really feel it),” he says. But Mr. Lodge (Aly Khan) in The Archies has only pampered her silly, far from abandoning her.

He's more of an absentee father. Veronica has to go through his assistant in order to get to her father on the phone and has to wait outside his office till he's free from a call or meeting. She could've gone all Animal on him and taken to violence because her father wasn't there for her in her growing up years. But she understands, and attributes his absence to his perennially busy occupation. “He's just doing his job,” she tells her friends, and also herself.

Mr. Lodge is more in the ilk of Anil Kapoor's character from Dil Dhadakne Do (2015). He doesn't consciously gag his kid's mouth with luxury or doesn't use the marriage of his offspring as a business proposition as blatantly as the high-society Punjabi tycoon from New Delhi did. But when Veronica confronts him for the side-effects of his business, he does remind her that she's able to travel the world and afford her outrageous wardrobe because of the very same dealings. That scene is a less dramatic version of Anil's character asking his pilot son, “Kyun, tumhe plane nahi chahiye kya?”

Watch Full Movies: