‘Varun Was Hanging, Upside Down For An Hour’

‘Varun
was
so
exhilarated
with
the
intense
physical
action
sequences.’
‘Samantha
is
very
agile.’
‘I
don’t
know
how
they
did
it.
It’s
really
hard.’

Content
is
king,
and
so
the
most
important
job
of
a
film
or
Web
series
is
the
writer’s.

Yet,
this
is
the
most
overlooked
profession
in
the
film
industry.

But

Sita
R
Menon
has
got
her
due,
after
working
with
Directors
Raj
Nidimoru
and
Krishna
DK
ever
since
their
directorial
debut

Flavors
in
2003.

Before
the
trio’s
new
project

Citadel:
Honey
Bunny
arrives
on
November
7,
Sita
gives
us
all
the
news
about
the
show.

Sita
was
the
Entertainment
Editor
at


Rediff.com
before
she
became
a
star
writer.

In
a
multi-part
interview,
she
tells

Patcy
N/Rediff.com,
“Right
at
the
beginning,
the
Russos
asked
me
to
tell
our
story
in
our
own
way,
in
whatever
genre
we
wanted.
Right
there,
there
was
freedom.
We
got
to
infuse
the
story
with
our
own
humour,
our
own
touch,
our
own
subversive
ways
of
telling
the
same
trope.”

How
did

Citadel
with
the
Russo
Brothers
happen?

In
2019,
Jennifer
Salke,
who
led
Amazon
Studios,
met
Raj
and
DK
with
an
offer.
She
had
planned
this
global
project
for
which
she
had
roped
in
the
Russo
Brothers.

They
planned
this
global
spy-verse
and
were
looking
for
film-makers
from
all
around
the
world
to
partner
with.

They
called
the
US
series
the
‘mothership’
with
such
points
all
around
the
world,
like
Italy,
India,
Mexico,
France,
Brazil…

Raj
and
DK
got
excited
(about
the
Indian
version)
and
promptly
came
and
told
me
about
it.

They
briefed
us
that
the
US
show
was
headlined
by
Priyanka
(Chopra),
and
her
character
is
called
Nadia.

We
started
jamming
about
what
we
can
do.

For
us,
it
was
extremely
easy
because
Nadia
was
the
most
emotional
and
synergistic
point
of
connect
into
the
larger
universe.

We
decided
to
do
something
about
Nadia’s
childhood
and
growing
up
years.

So
I
said,
let’s
not
do
Nadia,
let’s
create
new
characters
so
that
everybody
can
invest
and
dig
into
new
people.

The
US
would
have
already
explored
Nadia,
so
we
decided
to
do
the
show
about
Nadia’s
mother.

That’s
when
the
whole
James
Bond
analogy
started.
Everybody
knows
who
James
Bond
is,
but
nobody
knows
who
his
parents
are.

The
US
series
shows
Nadia
in
a
particular
light,
with
certain
characteristics
and
a
certain
oomph.
She’s
supposed
to
be
an
elite
agent.

That
made
it
exciting
for
us
to
go
back
in
time
and
ask,
how
did
she
become
like
that?

Who
were
her
parents?
We
created
these
two
characters,
Honey
and
Bunny.

The
show-runners
loved
them.

Today’s

Honey
Bunny
story
is
very
far
from
where
we
started
off
because
that’s
usually
how
stories
are.

But
the
core
and
heart
remains.

Honey
was
always
this
daredevil
mother
who
had
to
raise
her
daughter
a
certain
way.

We
knew
that
the
parents
had
to
have
been
separated
because
that
builds
drama.

I
always
had
this
idea
of
this
single
mother
raising
her
child
to
be
this
warrior.

The

trailer
is
so
filmi,
and
looks
unlike
a
Raj
and
DK
product.

It’s
cinematic,
rather
than

filmi.

This
is
possibly
the
most
commercial
or
cinematic
story
we’ve
written.

We’ve
paid
our
homage
to
Hindi
cinema.
There
are
a
lot
of
cinema
nuances
in
the
series.

We
had
to
place
the
story
logically
in
the
’90s
since
Nadia
belongs
to
the
present
day.

The
’90s
is
also
the
backdrop
for

Guns
&
Gulaabs,
Raj
and
DK’s
other
series,
for
which
I
was
consulted
upon.

You
worked
with
an
international
team
during

Citadel.
How
different
was
it?

Right
at
the
beginning,
the
Russos
asked
me
to
tell
our
story
in
our
own
way,
in
whatever
genre
we
wanted.
Right
there,
there
was
freedom.

We
got
to
infuse
the
story
with
our
own
humour,
our
own
touch,
our
own
subversive
ways
of
telling
the
same
trope.

We
would
do
our
own
brainstorming.

It
took
many,
many,
drafts
between
the
three
of
us,
which
were
then
sent
to
all
the
stakeholders,
and
there
are
many
—
There’s
Amazon
India,
Amazon
US,
Gozie
AGBO,
the
resource
company.

It’s
a
tent-pole
project
for
everybody
involved.

If
there
was
stuff
they
didn’t
understand
—
for
example,
there
might
be
some
inside
jokes
on

Farzi
—
we
had
to
make
it
clearer.

What
is
the
process
that
Raj,
DK
and
you
work
on?
How
do
you
decide
who
does
what?
How
did
you
write
the
action
scenes?

Like
how
we
always
work.
I’m
not
a
talker.
Raj
and
DK
talk
and
when
they
talk,
their
ideas
come
out.

I
don’t
do
that.

I
go
home,
shut
down
and
write.

I
can’t
think
when
I
talk.
I
think
when
I
type.

For

Citadel,
I
did
a
lot
of
the
heavy
lifting,
in
terms
of
the
writing.

I’m
the
main
writer
on
this
project.

I
would
write
the
whole
thing
and
they
would
give
feedback.

As
for
action
writing,
it
did
not
come
easy.
It
was
very
hard.

This
is
the
first
time
I’m
writing
action.

The
thing
with
action
stories
is
that
nobody
takes
action
very
seriously.
It’s
not
like
you
will
see
an
action
movie
in
an
awards
show.

So
our
effort
was
not
to
make
this
an
award-winning
project.

But
given
the
fact
that
it’s
a
spy
action
drama,
we
had
to
make
it
unique.

Were
you
present
on
the
sets
during
the
shoot?

Yes.
Earlier,
during
the
shoots
of

99,

Shor
In
The
City
I
could
not
go
on
set
because
I
was
working
with


Rediff
and
other
jobs.

As
long
as
I
had
a
day
job,
I
wasn’t
able
to
be
involved
on
set.

But
since
I
quit,
I’ve
been
on
the
set
of
every
project.

I
couldn’t
do
it
with

Farzi
because
it
was
during
COVID
and
had
a
restricted
number
of
people
on
set.

What
were
Varun
and
Samantha
like
on
set?

Varun
has
never
done
action
before

Citadel.

He
reached
out
to
DK,
saying,
‘I’d
love
to
do
an
action
story.’

When
DK
told
him
about
this
project,
he
jumped
in.

I
remember
the
first
time
we
went
to
his
house
to
narrate
the
story.
He
showed
us
these
amazing
videos
where
he
had
done
these
parkour-type
flips.
He’s
a
huge
UFC
and
MMA
fan.

He
turned
out
to
be
far
more
knowledgeable
than
we
thought.

Because
he’s
a
dancer,
he
is
very
agile.
His
body
is
very
flexible.

His
first
shot
was
at
night,
in
an
abandoned
building,
where
he
had
to
do
his
spy
thing
and
infiltrate
that
place.
He
was
hanging,
upside
down,
for
more
than
an
hour.

He
was
so
exhilarated
with
these
intense
physical
action
sequences.

Samantha
had
already
proved
her
mettle
in

The
Family
Man
which
is
why
we
saw
her
as
the
best
choice
as
Honey.

She
has
to
single-handedly
take
on
agents,
so
there
were
lots
of
action
sequences.

She
trains
very
hard
in
a
personal
capacity.

She
has
a
highly
regimented
routine
and
is
very
agile.

I
don’t
know
how
they
did
it.
It’s
really
hard.

But
both
of
them
came
through
very
well.