Agastya Nanda: Here's Indian Archie, the new Bachchan kid in Bollywood

Unlike most celebrity kids, Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda keeps a low profile.

There’s not much on social media about the young aspiring actor who’s making a debut in Zoya Akhtar’s ‘The Archies’, which will stream on Netflix on December 7. The good-looking actor, who strongly resembles a younger version of his uncle, Abhishek Bachchan, plays the central character of the comic hero Archie Andrews in this Riverdale drama set in India.

Agastya Nanda’s Instagram account is private, and most of the photographs on social media have been posted by his adoring sister Navya Naveli Nanda and his mother, Shweta Bachchan Nanda.

Drawn to films

Sweta Bachchan, who is Amitabh Bachchan’s only daughter never acted in films and according to reports is not keen on her son entering films. She is ostensibly worried about the trolling on social media and its effect on her son. However, Agastya, who everyone in the family believed would become a filmmaker after he made a short YouTube film and even composed music for it, has turned to acting.

The 22-year-old's lineage is daunting and he has a formidable legacy to carry forward. For not only is he the grandson of the two legends of Indian cinema like Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan; his father is Nikhil Nanda, a businessman, who happens to be the son of Ritu Nanda, the daughter of the well-known filmmaker, the late Raj Kapoor.

Agastya told Entrepreneur on taking up acting: "I always thought I would be a businessman, I was very against wanting to be an actor, as I wanted to be different from what people expected me to be. But now here I am." 

Film offers are pouring in for Agastya, who will soon start shooting for his next film to be directed by Sriram Raghavan. The film called 'Ikkis' is based on the life of Param Vir Chakra Arun Khetarpal. He turned down the offer to play the role of Lakshman in the 'The Ramayana' which is yet to go on the floors.

Not a Casanova

Agastya Nanda has completed his schooling in SevenOaks in London in 2019 and was supposed to go on to New York for further studies. However, it is not clear if he is pursuing his studies currently. He is supposed to have auditioned for 'The Archies' and bagged the plum role of the film's iconic hero.

On being asked at an event if he is a “Casanova like Archie,” Agastya, who is supposed to be dating Shah Rukh Khan's daughter Suhana Khan, said, he wouldn’t call himself a Casanova. "I think something we did share in common was music,” he said about Archie.

Role model in life

On his biggest role model in life, the actor said it is his late grandmother Ritu Nanda. “I would say my role model is my dadi Ritu Nanda. She is no longer with us but she is a person I’ve always aspired to be like. She just had this warmth about her. If you were around her, you would feel like you could do anything," he said, adding that he wished he could do that for the people around him and "give them that positivity and love".

Ritu Nanda had passed away in 2020.

Amitabh wishes his grandson

Meanwhile, megastar Amitabh Bachchan on Friday (November 10) took to social media to send best wishes to his grandson Agastya Nanda, ahead of his film debut with "The Archies", saying the young actor will take family's legacy forward.