"If there is a spy series, there is always a male character doing cool action and some cool dialogues. What sets this apart is that I get to kick ass too," Samantha said at the trailer launch of her new spy Web series Citadel: Honey Bunny.
Varun Dhawan claims he kept his fingers crossed for Samantha to be in the project.
"In my heart, I was manifesting Samantha will be a part of the series," he says.
"I was her fan when I saw Makkhi. After Family Man, I wanted to work with her."
"Sikander Kher use to bully me when I was a kid and now, I share screen space with him," he adds.
"When I saw Family Man, I called Raj and DK (Directors Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK). Sam was also in it (Season 2) and I was gushing about the action scenes. I have never done action in any film before, and at that time, they told me they are doing something with the Russos. They had me at Russos! I met Raj and came to know that the possibilities are endless."
Citadel: Honey Bunny is a prequel to Priyanka Chopra's Citadel.
Kashvi Majmundar plays little Nadia, Samantha and Varun Dhawan's daughter, which means that the actors play Priyanka's parents.
Kashvi is very confident and she says, "I was thrilled to know that I would be playing young Priyanka Chopra because she is an all rounder. She acts, she dances, she sings and I act, dance and sing too. So it's a perfect match.
"And I am really lucky to have such good looking onscreen parents."
Since it's a prequel, the show is set in the '90's.
"We didn't get cool gadget, but still had a lot of fun," Varun says.
"Bunny is an orphan, Kay Kay (Menon) sir plays my Baba, who is a mentor figure for me. There is a Hindi film industry backdrop in the series. I love the '90s because my father made so many films in that period, so I would suggest Raj and DK, why don't you use the songs from Subhash Ghai's films?"
Samantha feels there should be equal playing grounds as "intelligence, talent and strength decides everything, irrespective of your gender. There is also opportunity to work with talents from across the world. Everything seems bright."
Sita Menon, the writer of the show, says how they wanted to connect Citadel with the Honey Bunny: "We thought of bringing in young Nadia but we had a question: How do we take the story forward?
"That's when we decided to add the story of Nadia's parents. We all know James Bond but we don't know who his parents are. That was the backdrop on which we built Honey Bunny."
"Only South Indians are taking notice of me," Varun says.
"I started working with Raj and DK and Sam. Next, I am working with Atlee, Keerthy Suresh as well as Janhvi (Kapoor). The reason I am saying this is that during the lockdown, I met Aditya Chopra. We played badminton. They were making Tiger at that time.
"I asked him sir, 'Why don't you make action films with younger talent like me?' He said, no, we can't, because you are not at that place where I can give you such a big budget. So I asked him the budget and he gave me a figure. So when this opportunity came, I asked what the budget was. So I was really grateful to Raj and DK."
Raj shares how Varun was all charged for the action sequences.
"On the very first day, he was hung upside down for an hour for a scene and we realised that he was an action hero waiting to burst out. We got to know Samantha's prowess in Family Man 2 so suddenly, it became a lethal combo. Samantha and Varun did all the action on their own."
Citadel: Honey Bunny will stream from November 7 on Amazon Prime Video.
Reportage: Patcy N. Photographs: Hitesh Harisinghani. Videos: Afsar Dayatar.
