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

A still from the series

In what's obviously a happy serendipity, during the shoot of Russo Bros' Citadel S02, off London - that we can't talk about, given it's still being shot - actor Priyanka Chopra steps out of a shower scene, greets us to mention about the Indian Citadel, Honey Bunny: "Oh, Varun Dhawan plays my dad [in the series]!"

We bring up this moment, during a chat with the Honey Bunny squad - directors Raj & DK (i.e. Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK), writer Sita Menon, and female lead, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, in London. They burst into a laugh. "And Samantha is Priyanka's mother," Sita says.

No spoiler-alert necessary. If you've watched Prime Video's Indian arm of Citadel - the premise is that it's the desi origin-story of Priyanka's protagonist, Nadia, from the global show.

Raj-DK

Sita says, "[That explains why Honey Bunny] is organically set in the '90s. We are following the story of Nadia's parents."

That would be Varun's character, Bunny. And his love-interest, Honey, who first gets recruited into the espionage scene, fittingly, as a honey-trap.

Both characters originally work in Bollywood - as stunt-man, and aspiring female actor. Seems quite far-fetched for a series about spies, no? Did the creators have some other script idea that they retrofitted into the Citadel space - we shoot in the dark.

Krishna DK, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Raj Nidimoru and Sita Menon

Sita smiles, "Something like that! We had a mix of [story] ideas, earlier. One of which was titled Dancing and Fighting - about a junior stuntman, and a wannabe actress. The [Honey Bunny] story didn't start off that way - but we thought, why not [incorporate that idea into this]?"

Raj adds, "We had a full draft ready. But we wanted another motif to make Honey Bunny more colourful and new." At the time of this conversation, we had only seen the first episode of the show, at its première, the night before.

From that point onwards, the series takes multiple turns, as it zigzags along, chiefly flitting between two timelines - 1992, 2000, even 1999, at some point - perhaps even confusingly so, on occasion.

Samantha Ruth Prabhu plays a spy in Honey Bunny

For whatever your thoughts on the show itself - the reviews are out - what's undeniable is the scale of this global enterprise.

What with the OG Citadel, besides multiple seasons, branching out into regional variants, namely Citadel Italy, Diana, and Indian, Honey Bunny, of course.

All of them with Russo Bros of Avengers' fame as guardian angels of this global franchise.

Most Indian mainstream filmmakers would give an arm and a leg to helm the desi arm of such a spy universe. Did Raj & DK snag this job, because they're also a filmmaking team, like the Russo siblings, we joke! "Of course, that was the only criterion," DK laughs.

On a serious note, Raj recalls, "Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon and MGM Studios, told us [during] pre-COVID times, that they have this crazy, ambitious idea, to create spies across the world: ‘Do you guys wanna create some Indian spies?' We said, yes. We'd never done an action piece so far. And we want to keep switching genres, anyway."

DK mentions this was in mid-2019; Salke and team had watched the rough-cut of Prime Video's The Family Man, "which only came out in September, 2019, while we were already developing The Family Man Season 2 that got green-lit.

"By 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 came.

"So, okay, we can handle three shows! This is it. No more. And then Jennifer Salke happened. She made an offer we couldn't refuse!"

Everybody chimes in, "Now, DK is flexing."

To 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 & DK's Netflix series in the fantasy-mythological space.

It's hardly been a year since they dropped the show, Guns & Gulaabs. And Honey Bunny is here. Overworked, much? Raj says, "Not at all. We're just happy to be doing all kinds of stuff we always wanted to."

• • •

As Raj puts it, Honey Bunny is the director-duo's first true-blue actioner. The series bears a sufficient supply of set-pieces. One of which, in particular, caught Citadel exec-producer Joe Russo's eye. Or so Joe mentioned to the audience at the show's première.

It relates to a kinetic chase in Honey Bunny's first episode, set in night-time, South Bombay - with the gang led by Sikandar Kher's character, criss-crossing the streets, preying on Varun's gang, both on motorbikes.

A motorcycle literally flies over Varun's head while he's still speeding. "How did you guys manage to do that?" Joe says, he asked DK. This is legit compliment, coming from the master of Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Also, the show happens to be the first actioner for Bollywood star, Varun, himself. And that assertion comes as a surprise of sorts - although Varun has pulled off stunts in masala movies that are, by nature, all-genre, anyway.

DK recalls Varun personally calling him up, soon after The Family Man S02: "He said, ‘Listen, if you guys are doing anything else, let me know. Especially, if you're doing anything in action.

"We were actually developing Citadel. We didn't have anybody in mind. So, it wasn't much of a pitch. I said, ‘We're doing Citadel.' And Varun said, ‘Sure, I'm on.'"

Just like that, Varun got onboard his web series debut. For some reason, we tell Raj & DK, Varun usually reminds us of Govinda, through his goofy, genial presence onscreen, otherwise.

This reference is apt for the two directors, because they're among the few from the current lot, who've actually worked with the '90s superstar, Govinda. That was in Raj & DK's Happy Ending (2014), a decade ago. Is Varun anything like Govinda on the set too?

Raj says, "We sought out Govinda to play himself [in Happy Ending]. You're making that [Varun-Govinda] connection; we didn't! Varun, we realised, is a director's actor. He submits to an idea, once he's made sense of it… He was always mentally trained to be an action star."

Varun's Bunny is a macho-intense part, alright. Cast opposite the South/Tamil-Telugu sensation, Samantha Ruth Prabhu (with faint resemblance to Priyanka Chopra).

Samantha has executed action blocks, with Raj & DK, in The Family Man S02. We ask her if training for Honey Bunny was any different?

She says, "I never have the kind of time to prepare for the sort of action [Raj & 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, convincingly.

"I'm not waiting [anymore] for them to give me specific training for a scene/role. I've now put in martial arts, and a little bit of action, into my daily routine."
Say action, Samantha implies, and she's ready to go. She adds, "It helps that I have absolutely no social life."