Varun Dhawan recalled how producer Aditya Chopra reacted when the actor asked him why he doesn’t make big-budget action films with young talent.
Varun Dhawan, in a career spanning over a decade, has dabbled with different genres, but we are yet to see him in a hardcore action film. Of course, there’s Atlee’s Baby John coming up this year, but the ‘Coolie No 1’ actor still feels that the Hindi film industry is yet to notice his knack for action genre.
Recently at the trailer launch event of his upcoming web series, Citadel: Honey Bunny, Varun narrated how Aditya Chopra made him understand the economics of a big-budget actioner when he asked the producer why he doesn’t offer him an action movies.
The actor shared, “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.”
He continued, “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.”
Varun revealed that when he was offered Citadel: Honey Bunny, he asked the show’s creators Raj-DK and Amazon Prime Video 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 ‘Badlapur’ actor revealed.
Further, mentioning his upcoming film Baby John, Varun expressed his gratitude towards South directors for giving him an opportunity to explore the action genre.
The actor told reporters, “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 Sam, 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).”
Coming back to Citadel: Honey Bunny, the much-anticipated series also features Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kay Kay Menon and Sikander Kher. It is slated to premier on Amazon Prime Video on November 7.
