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‘So while playing Bunny the stuntman, he had a happy time.’
‘He used to do these impersonations of Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty, Govinda and Anil Kapoor.’
IMAGE: Samantha and Varun Dhawan in Citadel: Honey Bunny.
As Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s Citadel: Honey Bunny streamS on Amazon Prime Video, the spy thriller’s writer Sita R Menon takes us behind the scenes.
In the first part of this multi-part interview, Sita revealed how Samantha and Varun Dhawan performed the action scenes.
“Samantha emotes through her eyes. When people saw her audition scene, many kept saying, ‘Oh my God, she acts so much like Sridevi.’ She was unsure about her Hindi when she came, but somehow, she studied it and made it work for her,” Sita tells Patcy N/Rediff.com in the second segment of the interview.
Were Samantha and Varun your original choices when you started writing Citadel in 2019?
When you’re writing, you’re not thinking of anyone. It you do that, it colours everything.
Our story has two timelines, one is set in 1992 and the other in 2000.
Varun loves the ’90s because that’s the period he remembers most for his father (director David Dhawan)’s films.
He’s well aware of what the scenario used to be then. So while playing Bunny the stuntman, he had a happy time. He used to do these impersonations of Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty, Govinda and Anil Kapoor.
His character is fully Bambaiya, and Varun could freely express himself in that part.
Eight years later, he’s a completely different human being. He’s been through a lot of hardships, he’s much more serious.
Samantha’s role was written for a Hindi actor. But when she was on, we changed it a bit to make it sound like she’s come from the South to Bombay, to try her luck in the film industry.
That took care of her accent, and the fact that she speaks a mix of Hindi and English.
What’s the atmosphere like on a Raj and DK set?
Most Indian films sets are chaotic because there are some 200 people floating around.
So there’s a lot of noise. Even when you say ‘silence’, 200 people are saying ‘silence’! So there’s a lot of noise.
Raj and DK keep their sets very chill.
It’s usually three takes for each sequence.
First, they let the actor do what they want because that’s the first instinct.
Of course, they’ll brief them.
The second and third, if there are, will be tweaks and feedback.
IMAGE: Vijay Sethupathi in Farzi.
Having worked with Shahid Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Saif Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Samantha, Raashii Khanna, Vijay Sethupathi, Jacqueline Fernandez, what impresses you most about them?
Kunal is extremely spontaneous and so good at improvising. It’s amazing to watch him.
Saif is a director’s actor. After every take, he will look at the director and ask, is that good?
And if there’s even the slightest hesitation on the director’s face, or even my face, he’ll ask to do one more. He’s always out to please you to get the best possible emotion in that sequence.
Siddharth is fun and chill. He’s so good looking on camera that it’s just nice to watch him.
Shahid internalises his role very deeply. He does his internal researching in his head about his character. We don’t shoot linear, but he will know exactly which scene that character is coming from.
The funniest thing about Shahid is that you will never see the script in his hand because he’s committed everything by heart. He’s done his job before he comes onto the set.
Varun just submitted himself to Raj, DK and even me in terms of who his character is.
He has this amazing quality where he comes in knowing that he will ace that sequence. We used to tell him that suppose you come in completely blank, maybe you will surprise yourself because it’s great to leave it to spontaneity too.
Vijay (Sethupathi) was a dream to work with. He’s so natural. The thing about Vijay is that, of course, he’s Tamilian and he’s supposed to be this cop in Bombay (in Farzi). Most South Indians in Bombay tend to retain that South Indian flavour, especially cops. They talk like how Vijay was talking, like a full Tamilian.
Not knowing Hindi so well, he made that whole fumbling and mumbling work for him.
I didn’t shoot with Jacqueline, so I don’t know her. But I do know that she’s also somebody who likes to please everyone. She’s a people’s person.
Raashii is studious. She’s like this student, learning her lines and making sure it’s all right.
Samantha emotes through her eyes. When people saw her audition scene, many kept saying, ‘Oh my God, she acts so much like Sridevi.’
She was unsure about her Hindi when she came, but somehow, she studied it and made it work for her.
Priyanka Chopra’s Citadel did not do that well. Did that bother you while making Honey Bunny?
We had almost finished shooting when the first Citadel released.
No matter how that series did or how the others will do, we were just focused on what we are doing.
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IMAGE: Samantha and Varun Dhawan in Citadel: Honey Bunny.
Film/OTT writing has changed over the years. Sex is written openly. Gay characters are not stereotyped anymore. What do you think about this change? How difficult is it to write an intimate scene?
Intimate scenes are very difficult. I can’t. It’s very tough for me to write.
All I say is they get intimate. That’s all.
Raj and DK don’t like to include sex because it’s gratuitous.
We are not for gratuitous skin show or gratuitous sex scenes.
If a kiss is there, it means something to the story or the character.
Gay characters, honestly, these things are very sensitive.
I would think a hundred times before I wrote a gay character or a mentally challenged character because it requires a lot of research and empathy.
That’s the reason I shy away entirely from stories that have rape. I just can’t.
It’s just terrifying for me, as a woman, to handle subjects like that because it’s so sensitive.
You were a journalist, like your father. When did you start getting attracted to writing scripts?
I have to thank Nikhil (Lakshman, Editor-In-Chief, Rediff.com) and Rediff.com for that. I was interviewing Raj and DK for a film, and we got talking.
One thing led to another and they said they had just finished the first draft for their first full length feature film, Flavors, and asked me if I wanted to take a look.
Honestly, I swear I didn’t have any plans to get into the film industry at all.
They gave me a title because they didn’t know what to call me. They called me ‘Executive Producer’.
Everything from script consulting, to writing lyrics, supervising the music, the whole sound process, I handled the whole post-production in India.
It started from there and I felt it was very exciting.
I would manage my job with films on the side.
Then I quit Rediff and went on to DNA (the newspaper), then Network 18 and Star.
By the time I went to Star, the job demands were very high. It got to a point where it had been almost two years since I actually wrote anything.
So these two (Raj and DK) kept saying, why don’t you quit?
I didn’t want to because I was too scared to lose the security of a job.
Finally, I said, okay, I’ll take the leap.
After I quit, the fact that I didn’t get to see a salary at the end of every month was very terrifying for me.
I hit a personal low when my parents fell ill and I had to take care of them. I just forgot about work at that point.
Before I knew it, almost six years had passed.
Which meant that I lost a lot of time that I could have capitalised and done a lot.
But that’s okay; I did it for family.
When I got back, I didn’t know what I was coming back to. I had no project in hand.
Suddenly two assignments (Go Goa Gone and Happy Ending) came but both fell through. That was the darkest period of my life.
I just didn’t know what I was going to do.
That’s when Citadel came in 2019 and in mid-2020, Farzi started.
So the entire COVID was split between Citadel and Farzi, and consulting on another Raj and DK show called Gulkanda Tales.
So all of a sudden from doing nothing, I didn’t know where the days and nights were going! But that was a good thing because it meant there was work.
How did you handle this low point in your life?
It was very, very, scary. I didn’t know what I’m going to do; I didn’t have any assignment in hand.
I wrote the pitches for Citadel — they loved it — but I had to still write the whole thing.
Would I be able to deliver because it had been a while?
For the longest time, I would think I’m a fake person because being a writer is the most terrifyingly lonely place to be in. You’re filled with self-doubt because you’re writing for yourself.
You don’t know how it will be perceived by others, like the director, the producer, the studio…
So you’re writing and thinking, will they even like this?
All these doubts play on your mind all the time.
Even during Citadel, sometimes there would be times when I would not do my best work because you’re also finding a way in.
Perseverance is the only thing (that helps).
