Citadel: Honey Bunny - How Varun Dhawan became Priyanka Chopra's dad!

In whatrsquos obviously a happy serendipity during the shoot of Russo Brosrsquo Citadel S02 off Londonmdashthat we canrsquot talk about given itrsquos still being shotmdashactor Priyanka Chopra steps out of a shower scene greets us to mention about the Indian Citadel Honey Bunny ldquoOh Varun Dhawan plays my dad in the seriesrdquoWe bring up this moment during a chat with the Honey Bunny squadmdashdirectors Raj amp DK ie Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK writer Sita Menon and female lead Samantha Ruth Prabhu in London They burst into a laugh ldquoAnd Samantha is Priyankarsquos motherrdquo Sita saysNo spoileralert necessary If yoursquove watched Prime Videorsquos Indian arm of Citadelmdashthe premise is that itrsquos the desi originstory of Priyankarsquos protagonist Nadia from the global showRajDKSita says ldquoThat explains why Honey Bunny is organically set in the rsquo90s We are following the story of Nadiarsquos parentsrdquoThat would be Varunrsquos character Bunny And his loveinterest Honey who first gets recruited into the espionage scene fittingly as a honeytrapBoth characters originally work in Bollywoodmdashas stuntman and aspiring female actor Seems quite farfetched for a series about spies no Did the creators have some other script idea that they retrofitted into the Citadel spacemdashwe shoot in the darkKrishna DK Samantha Ruth Prabhu Raj Nidimoru and Sita MenonSita smiles ldquoSomething like that We had a mix of story ideas earlier One of which was titled Dancing and Fightingmdashabout a junior stuntman and a wannabe actress The Honey Bunny story didnrsquot start off that waymdashbut we thought why not incorporate that idea into thisrdquoRaj adds ldquoWe had a full draft ready But we wanted another motif to make Honey Bunny more colourful and newrdquo At the time of this conversation we had only seen the first episode of the show at its premiegravere the night beforeFrom that point onwards the series takes multiple turns as it zigzags along chiefly flitting between two timelinesmdash1992 2000 even 1999 at some pointmdashperhaps even confusingly so on occasionSamantha Ruth Prabhu plays a spy in Honey BunnyFor whatever your thoughts on the show itselfmdashthe reviews are outmdashwhatrsquos undeniable is the scale of this global enterpriseWhat with the OG Citadel besides multiple seasons branching out into regional variants namely Citadel Italy Diana and Indian Honey Bunny of courseAll of them with Russo Bros of Avengersrsquo fame as guardian angels of this global franchiseMost Indian mainstream filmmakers would give an arm and a leg to helm the desi arm of such a spy universe Did Raj amp DK snag this job because theyrsquore also a filmmaking team like the Russo siblings we joke ldquoOf course that was the only criterionrdquo DK laughsOn a serious note Raj recalls ldquoJennifer Salke head of Amazon and MGM Studios told us during preCOVID times that they have this crazy ambitious idea to create spies across the world lsquoDo you guys wanna create some Indian spiesrsquo We said yes Wersquod never done an action piece so far And we want to keep switching genres anywayrdquoDK mentions this was in mid2019 Salke and team had watched the roughcut of Prime Videorsquos The Family Man ldquowhich only came out in September 2019 while we were already developing The Family Man Season 2 that got greenlitldquoBy then there was one series that we had to make Farzi We could handle two shows at the same time Somewhere around then Golconda Tales cameldquoSo okay we can handle three shows This is it No more And then Jennifer Salke happened She made an offer we couldnrsquot refuserdquoEverybody chimes in ldquoNow DK is flexingrdquoTo be fair DK is in London from Nagaland where he was shooting The Family Man S03 simultaneously on the phone with Raj in Mumbai Who in turn was shooting episodes of Rakt Bramhand Raj amp DKrsquos Netflix series in the fantasymythological spaceItrsquos hardly been a year since they dropped the show Guns amp Gulaabs And Honey Bunny is here Overworked much Raj says ldquoNot at all Wersquore just happy to be doing all kinds of stuff we always wanted tordquobull bull bullAs Raj puts it Honey Bunny is the directorduorsquos first trueblue actioner The series bears a sufficient supply of setpieces One of which in particular caught Citadel execproducer Joe Russorsquos eye Or so Joe mentioned to the audience at the showrsquos premiegravereIt relates to a kinetic chase in Honey Bunnyrsquos first episode set in nighttime South Bombaymdashwith the gang led by Sikandar Kherrsquos character crisscrossing the streets preying on Varunrsquos gang both on motorbikesA motorcycle literally flies over Varunrsquos head while hersquos still speeding ldquoHow did you guys manage to do thatrdquo Joe says he asked DK This is legit compliment coming from the master of Marvel Cinematic UniverseAlso the show happens to be the first actioner for Bollywood star Varun himself And that assertion comes as a surprise of sortsmdashalthough Varun has pulled off stunts in masala movies that are by nature allgenre anywayDK recalls Varun personally calling him up soon after The Family Man S02 ldquoHe said lsquoListen if you guys are doing anything else let me know Especially if yoursquore doing anything in actionldquoWe were actually developing Citadel We didnrsquot have anybody in mind So it wasnrsquot much of a pitch I said lsquoWersquore doing Citadelrsquo And Varun said lsquoSure Irsquom onrsquordquoJust like that Varun got onboard his web series debut For some reason we tell Raj amp DK Varun usually reminds us of Govinda through his goofy genial presence onscreen otherwiseThis reference is apt for the two directors because theyrsquore among the few from the current lot whorsquove actually worked with the rsquo90s superstar Govinda That was in Raj amp DKrsquos Happy Ending 2014 a decade ago Is Varun anything like Govinda on the set tooRaj says ldquoWe sought out Govinda to play himself in Happy Ending Yoursquore making that VarunGovinda connection we didnrsquot Varun we realised is a directorrsquos actor He submits to an idea once hersquos made sense of ithellip He was always mentally trained to be an action starrdquoVarunrsquos Bunny is a machointense part alright Cast opposite the SouthTamilTelugu sensation Samantha Ruth Prabhu with faint resemblance to Priyanka ChopraSamantha has executed action blocks with Raj amp DK in The Family Man S02 We ask her if training for Honey Bunny was any differentShe says ldquoI never have the kind of time to prepare for the sort of action Raj amp DK are looking for Things get changed on set And they love these long shots where they refuse to call cut and you have to be able to do all the stunts convincinglyldquoIrsquom not waiting anymore for them to give me specific training for a scenerole Irsquove now put in martial arts and a little bit of action into my daily routinerdquoSay action Samantha implies and shersquos ready to go She adds ldquoIt helps that I have absolutely no social liferdquo