Varun Dhawan Compares Baby John to Indian Thali: Calls Citadel Role a ‘Piece of Cake’
Bollywood star Varun Dhawan is going all out South Indian style for his Christmas release “Baby John” and had to study Rajinikanth’s mannerisms for his role.

Varun Dhawan Compares Baby John to Indian Thali: Bollywood star Varun Dhawan is going all out South Indian style for his Christmas release “Baby John” and had to study Rajinikanth’s mannerisms for his role.
Speaking to Variety before the film’s December 25 release, Dhawan says, “I wanted to do something bigger than life. I wanted to be that macho hero. I wanted to express myself in a certain way which I was not getting here [in Bollywood] or those films are not being made here,” he says.
The actor had to study the mass moments of South Indian cinema. “I was shown a video of [Indian superstar] Rajinikanth-sir and all the different things he does, the mass moments he does,” says Dhawan. “Then I was shown a video of all the actors from Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi cinema where they were doing what Rajinikanth-sir does and it was fascinating to see that he has done so many things, everything that people do is what he’s done.”
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Compared to classic Hindi cinema, Dhawan references the 1991 Amitabh Bachchan starrer “Hum”. “In my childhood, I loved this film called ‘Hum’ by Mukul Anand where Amitabh Bachchan plays almost a double role, dual identity kind of character,” he says. “‘Baby John’ has similar themes.
It also has another theme of protection of women in this country and how it’s done. And there’s a solution also for it, which is good parenting versus bad parenting. It’s almost like an Indian Thali [platter] which has every different cultural cuisine.”
The South Indian style of filmmaking was tough for him. “It was very, very difficult. I think one of the toughest acting assignments I’ve had in a while,” he says.
“When I did [Prime Video action series] ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny‘ with [directors] Raj and DK, it felt like a piece of cake actually, because that was very differently engineered.” He adds, “No shooting day felt easy ever. There was no light shooting day. Everything felt heavy. Everything felt big.”
The film’s action sequences, choreographed by “Citadel: Honey Bunny” action director Yannick Ben, promise to deliver spectacular set pieces. “There’s a big interval block, pre-interval block, which is in the rain, which he’s done, which is a standout for me,” Dhawan shares. “The action in ‘Baby John’ is a monster in itself.”
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