The trailer of Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s highly anticipated series, ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ has created significant buzz. With its pulse-pounding action sequences, and retro vibes set against ‘Aaj Hi Ki Raat’ from ‘Don,’ the trailer promises a visual treat. ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ is helmed by ace directorial duo Raj and DK with the Russo Brothers as executive producers. Ahead of the series’ release, Raj reveals that Samantha wasn’t their ‘automatic choice’ for the role of Honey.

Notably, the upcoming series is Samantha’s second collaboration with the duo following ‘Family Man 3.’ ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ was already in the works while Samantha was shooting for the Manoj Bajpayee-led spy thriller. Recently, in an interview with News18 Showsha, creator Raj Nidimoru revealed there was a big gap between casting Samantha and Varun. While Varun was the first actor who got on board, Samantha joined him much later. The director revealed, “We didn’t tell her during The Family Man 2 that we’re making Citadel: Honey Bunny because we were still in the developmental stage.”

Moreover, Raj revealed that, unlike Varun, Samantha didn’t even know that he, DK and show writer Sita R Menon had submitted two ideas to the Russo Brothers. “Varun became an insider the moment we pitched the story to him. He knew that we were doing this show much before Samantha knew. We had just created a story and were happy that we finally found a rhythm.”

 

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Talking about why Samantha wasn’t the makers’ obvious choice, Raj argued, “At that time, Varun had called DK. And DK told me, ‘What about him for Citadel?’ We thought that maybe having Varun would work and we decided to switch around a little bit. For a long time, we kept thinking about who could play Honey. The first version of Citadel: Honey Bunny had a very Hindi-speaking female protagonist. Samantha’s Hindi, on the other hand, was extremely minimal during The Family Man 2. That’s why she wasn’t an automatic choice.”

The director further elaborated his rationale saying, “There was always the question of how she would do this whole role. And then, I was surprised how she suddenly learned a new language like Hindi. For a Hindi-speaking person to speak Telugu or Tamil, it’s almost next to impossible to sound right. Similarly, for a Telugu or Tamil speaker, picking up Hindi is tough. That’s why I thought that it was impossible to get an actor like Samantha, who could get close to getting the language right. Hence, we weren’t thinking of Samantha at that point at all.”

Also Read: Samantha Ruth Prabhu shares concussion experience during ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ shoot

Following his remarks, Samantha also talked about the language barrier in the same interview. She stated, “Honey was right before their eyes all this while but they couldn’t see it! I was so bad when it comes to Hindi and I’m still bad at it. It’s not like I don’t understand or can’t speak the language. It’s just that I’m so scared and nervous thinking that my accent or pronunciation might not be right.”

The upcoming series is the spin-off to Priyanka Chopra and Richard Madden’s American original ‘Citadel.’ With the American original serving as the leading title, the makers are developing originals based in India, Italy, Spain, and Mexico. Ahead of the Indian chapter, the Italian original, ‘Citadel: Diana’ released on Amazon Prime Video on October 9. Meanwhile, the Raj and DK helmed series premieres on November 7. Additionally, Priyanka Chopra has already started filming for the second season of ‘Citadel.’