Varun Tej on ‘Operation Valentine’: War-based films are rare in Telugu

Interview: Varun Tej on ‘Operation Valentine’, comparisons with ‘Fighter’ and his learnings from a decade in cinema. Directed by Shakti Pratap Singh Hada, the Hindi-Telugu bilingual releasing on March 1 also stars Manushi Chillar and Ruhani Sharma and explores Indian Air Force’s Balakot airstrikes in retaliation to the Pulwana attack

Superhero collectibles dot the open shelves of actor Varun Tej’s office in Hyderabad. An ardent fan of superhero comics and movies, he has accumulated showpieces over the last decade. He has given away several to his friends and still has quite a few that perk up his office decor. He settles down for an interview with The Hindu in the context of his Telugu-Hindi action entertainer Operation Valentine, scheduled to release on March 1, and will mark his debut in Hindi cinema. Incidentally, he has also completed a decade in cinema.

He vividly remembers beginning to film for his debut project Mukunda on February 27, 2014. “I had always wanted to be an actor; it was a dream come true.” He reckons how things have changed since then. “Our notion of mainstream and experimental cinema was different. Kanche(2015) was an experiment then; today, it would be mainstream. I’ve been learning to stay updated,” he says and adds that it does not feel like a decade since “the pandemic ate up three years.” 

Varun revived his reading habits during the pandemic. “My dad (actor Nagababu) encouraged me to read since it helps an actor to visualise a story while listening to a narration or going through a script.” The actor is on the verge of completing Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

In the last few days, he has been travelling and promoting Operation Valentine, directed by first-timer Shakti Pratap Singh Hada. The film features Varun Tej as a fighter pilot engaged in the Balakot airstrike following the Pulwama attacks. The trailer hints at an inside view of the life of fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and how they carried out the covert operation. 

Varun addresses the elephant in the room — the comparisons with director Siddharth Anand’s Fighterstarring Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone as fighter pilots. Operation Valentine came his way at the fag end of 2020 when director Shakti contacted him through a mutual friend in Mumbai. Apart from being moved by the story based on true incidents, Varun expressed interest since war-based stories are rarely explored in Telugu cinema. “Hindi cinema has been doing it for ages,” he says, mentioning watching Border while growing up. He agrees that post-Uri: The Surgical Strike, there has been more interest in war-based films. “Our story is inspired by the lesser-known backend operation.”  

Sony Pictures, which was keen on collaborating for another project with Varun that did not take shape, felt that Operation Valentine had the potential to be made in Hindi and Telugu. “The script was then submitted to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for approval. It was a long process with several heads of the departments having to clear it. We were told that nine to 12 scripts were waiting for clearance at the MoD, based on the same events. We did not know about Fighter or Tejasuntil the teasers and trailers were unveiled. By then our project was well underway.”

Varun is acutely aware of how movie buffs who watch films in multiple languages might quickly draw comparisons with Fighter, which was in turn compared to Top Gun Maverick. He reckons that for films such as Fighter or Operation Valentine stemming from the same set of real incidents, each filmmaker has different interpretations and dramatised characters with certain emotional graphs. “Our excitement came from the fact that Telugu cinema has not witnessed mid-air combats. In the beginning, we were told this is an experiment but I see it as a mainstream film with universal appeal,” Varun asserts.