Raj Nidimoru on why Samantha Ruth Prabhu wasn’t their first choice for ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’: ‘Her Hindi was extremely minimal’
Samantha Ruth Prabhu is gearing up for the release of her action series ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny‘ alongside Varun Dhawan. The OTT show, directed by Raj & DK and Raj Nidimoru, recently mentioned that Samantha was not an “automatic choice” for the series. Due to her limited proficiency in Hindi, they did not initially consider her for the role of Agent Honey.
In a chat with News18, Raj Nidimoru revealed why Samantha was not the first choice for ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny‘.He explained that Varun Dhawan was initially suggested by DK as a potential lead. The team considered the impact of having Varun on the project and decided to adjust their casting plans accordingly. For the character of Honey, they initially envisioned a female protagonist fluent in Hindi. However, given Samantha’s limited Hindi proficiency showcased in ‘The Family Man 2‘, she was not automatically selected for the role. “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,” Raj added.
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Raj expressed surprise at how quickly she learned the language, emphasizing the difficulty for speakers of Telugu or Tamil to master Hindi effectively. Given these linguistic hurdles, he initially believed it would be nearly impossible to find an actor like Samantha who could convincingly deliver the role in Hindi, which is why she wasn’t considered during the initial casting discussions.
The upcoming espionage action series is a spin-off of Priyanka Chopra’s ‘Citadel’ (2023). ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ also features Kay Menon, Simran Bagga, Sikandar Kher, Saqib Saleem, and others in key roles. It will be available on OTT on November 7.
