Varun Dhawan reveals Aditya Chopra once refused to cast him in a big-budget action film

Varun Dhawan at Citadel: Honey Bunny trailer launch (Photos: Yogen Shah)

In his 12-year-long career, Varun Dhawan has acted in two action films - Badlapur (2015) and Dishoom (2016). He will soon be seen in full action mode in 'Citadel: Honey Bunny', his OTT debut, and 'Baby John', a film by Atlee. At the trailer launch of 'Citadel: Honey Bunny', the actor said that he is grateful to South filmmakers for giving him the opportunity to explore the action genre and hoped that Bollywood also takes note.

Varun described the extent to which they went to film action scenes, "I had a great time (doing action). It is a wake-up call, and hopefully, a lot of people take notice of this. Right now, I feel only South Indians are taking notice of me and giving me great opportunities in action, which is true. I started working with Raj & DK, and Samantha, and next, I'm working with Atlee and Keerthy (Suresh, actress). Hopefully, that will lead the way for other people in our industry to give me (action roles)," he said.

The actor also revealed that he once asked Aditya Chopra to cast him in an action film but the producer turned him down saying that he was not "at that place" yet to justify the budget required to make a good movie in the genre. "During lockdown, I met Aditya Chopra, he was playing badminton, and Maneesh Sharma was there. They were making 'Tiger' (3) at that time. I asked him, 'Why don't you make an action film with a younger talent?' He was like, 'I want to give you acting roles, and don't want to give you action (roles)'. I kept pursuing it," Dhawan said.

"He (Chopra) was like, 'I can't do that because I can't give you that budget right now. You're not at that place where I can give you such a big budget'. I kept thinking and then I messaged him and asked him, 'What is the budget?' And he gave me a figure, that this is the budget you need to make something big in action."

Dhawan said when 'Honey Bunny' came his way, the first question he asked creators Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK and Amazon Prime Video was about its budget. "...Because I got this knowledge from Aditya Chopra that you need this much budget to make something look good in action. I'm grateful to Amazon and Raj & DK for giving us this platform because that is needed to make something look big, to make actors look larger than life."

The Hindi series, also starring Kay Kay Menon, Saqib Saleem, and Sikander Kher, will premiere on November 7 on Prime Video.