'In the current world of action cinema, where everything is high-tech and glossy, what if we go back in time and take out all the gadgets?'
For an intense spy thriller, Honey Bunny seems like a tongue-in-cheek title.
"We wanted a contradictory title to an action drama. So it's kind of ironical. Also, it's got a couple of meanings," Director Raj Nidimoru -- one half of the Raj & DK duo -- explains to Subhash K Jha.
"That, you know, you have this intense action drama going on, but it's called something as frivolous as Honey Bunny. It's like a child thing, you know, because it's got a child in the middle.
"Varun (Dhawan) and Samantha are like the father and mother to this kid. It's an endearment. Initially, the idea was to use this girl as a honey trap. Then she comes out of it. The same thing with Bunny (Varun's character), you know, like a fun guy, an action stuntman. They have these fun names."
What made the director duo cast Varun Dhawan and Samantha?
"Varun hasn't done action before. This is his first action role," Raj says.
But Samantha had done action very effectively in The Family Man 2.
"It was very effective and straight-faced. This time, we could have a range, so it will be fun to see a Honey turning into a warrior. They have delivered and how, both of them!
"Varun did it like as if he was built to be an action hero. He aced it. That's our idea because I always feel that some actors have the potential to do a lot of things. It's just a matter of getting that character.
"Similarly, Samantha hadn't done action before Family Man 2. She hadn't held a gun before Family Man 2. And the kind of amazing fame that it got her! I mean, that's her claim to fame because her feature films have not really worked, sadly. So, you see a different side of her."
Raj explains how Citadel: Honey Bunny takes the action genre to a different direction.
"We have shifted into a new gear, an action drama genre, which we haven't done before. More than that, I feel in the current world of action cinema, where everything is high-tech and glossy, what if we go back in time and take out all the gadgets? I'm talking about the contemporary actionscape, like Mission Impossible 2, Fast And Furious 2 even in India. Basically, everybody is doing modern action. So we thought, why don't we do it more grounded, earthy, organic?
"Like, fists and revolvers. Traditional, old-fashioned. Keeping the fights very personal. Varun and Samantha had to do their own action for it to be effective and not have stunt doubles. They had to do most of the action. They had to push themselves to get to that level."
Raj and DK have shut themselves from public expectations: "You just have to insulate yourself from extraneous forces. You do what you want to do.
"When we do Family Man or Stree (Raj & DK are the co-producers), we aren't thinking about how it will turn out.
"I'm glad to see that another genre creation we did has gone so far that it doesn't require stars. Even during Stree, we thought it would do decently at box office, but it became such a big success because it was really about the concept.
"Nobody expected it to do some Rs 175 crore (Rs 1.75 billion). This is crazy! So the power of concepts, the power of a fresh perspective on a genre is what I'm seeing escalate more and more, which is awesome."
When will The Family Man come back?
"We have started shooting Family Man 3 and almost done 75 percent of it. We will be done with the shoot by another month or so. The same cast with a couple of additions," he says.
Do Raj-DK see their achievement in The Family Man as a game-changer?
Raj disagrees: "We haven't set out to make any change in the game. But I'm very happy it has made a mark. Each show is different from the other. As for this one (Honey Bunny), more than anything else, it's the franchise; the colossal effort that's going into it in terms of a global idea. That so many film-makers, so many creative minds are getting together and creating a world across the world.
"It's like a pan-world feeling, right? In terms of Italians coming together, Mexicans, now somebody else... it's a fascinating idea to be a part of.
"The journey, the world, with all these different schools of film-making, different tones and styles coming in together. That was the biggest draw for us. We have never collaborated with anyone, right? The only collaboration we have is with (writer) Sita Menon."
"We heard the American version of The Citadel at the script level. We were all part of the reading, so it was pretty cool to be included. I could see each one was totally different. The Russo brothers, if you see their work, they're very, very, self-aware. So I like the fact that they are independent film-makers, just the two of them, writing, directing, producing.
"Where they started off and where they ended up being... massive! Some two billion something (dollars) Avengers Endgame made! They had the resources, they had the plans, the ideas. And we were discussing on the same level.
"I don't think our productions work like that. What it costs to make something here is different from what it costs to make in America. We're always amazed that, oh my God, it cost them 10 million dollars to make that feature film. A similar story in India would have cost us Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) too. That's just the way it costs in India. So to each version, its own vibe, I guess.
"We shot Honey Bunny like an Indian production, not a Hollywood one. We shot it like how we did The Family Man -- at those budgets, that production, our style, our own way of working."
Citadel: Honey Bunny will stream on Amazon Prime Video from November 7.
