# Citadel: Honey Bunny

Citadel: Honey Bunny is an Indian Hindi-language spy action television series directed by Raj & DK, who co-wrote with Sita R. Menon. It is the spin-off/prequel to the American television series Citadel on Amazon Prime Video and revolves around the story of Honey and Bunny, who are the parents of the character Nadia Sinh (played by Priyanka Chopra in the original series). The series stars Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu as the title characters with Kay Kay Menon, Simran, Sikandar Kher, Saqib Saleem, Soham Majumdar, Shivankit Singh Parihar and Thalaivaasal Vijay in supporting roles.
Citadel: Honey Bunny was released on 6 November 2024.

## Plot
### 1992

Rahi "Bunny" Gambhir works as a stunt double in Bollywood, but leads a secret life as a spy for Guru alias "Baba". Bunny’s team consists of Chacko and Ludo, who are like family to him. One day, Bunny meets Hanimandakini Honey Raj, a struggling actress and the illegitimate daughter of a royal family in Andhra Pradesh. They start to get close and he eventually asks her to join him on a mission. Honey agrees, but things go wrong when they are intercepted by Citadel agents, led by Shaan, and she gets shot. Honey recovers at Bunny's place and he reveals his background and secret life as a spy to her. They fall in love and Honey decides to become an agent, where Bunny trains her and eventually lets her join the team.
Their next mission takes them to Belgrade to track down Dr. Raghu Rao, who is supposed to be there to buy a device called Armada, from Dr. Pavel. Armada is a high-tech gadget that can track important individuals and is valuable in arms dealing. Honey then finds out she is pregnant and discovers that Raghu is an innocent civilian. Bunny promises her that Raghu will not be harmed, but Baba orders him to kill him anyway. Devastated by this, Honey leaks Baba’s location to Citadel and has him arrested. Honey reveals her pregnancy to Bunny and escapes with the Armada. However, Kedar KD, a new recruit, attacks Honey’s car, seemingly killing her. Bunny is fired from the agency.

### 2000

Honey has survived and is now living in hiding with her daughter Nadia, in Nainital. Baba's new agents eventually track them down to retrieve the Armada. Bunny, who now works as a singer in Bucharest, finds out that Honey and his daughter are still alive through a secured online chat with Ludo. Bunny reunites with Chacko and they start looking for Honey. KD is sent to hunt Honey down, but Bunny intercepts him at Base 33 and kills his team, alerting Baba. Honey takes Nadia to the ancestral palace in Andhra Pradesh where she was born and grew up and tells her about her past.
Bunny, Chacko, and Ludo locate a Citadel base in Mumbai and track Honey’s whereabouts. They discover that Zooni Shatsang, the Director of Citadel India, has been working with Baba and even helped him escape from Citadel's custody in 1999, as he was her husband, Rinzy's best friend and ex-Citadel agent. Honey passes this information to Shaan, a colleague of Zooni, who arrests her. Meanwhile, Bunny goes to Baba and destroys the Armada in front of him, threatening him not to harm his family.
Honey and Bunny regroup at her ancestral palace, but KD and his team successfully track and attack them, ignoring Baba’s orders not to attack them; KD continues the assault. The palace is left in ruins, but Honey, Bunny, and Nadia narrowly escape. They are ambushed again by KD and Bunny lets Honey and Nadia escape, while he stays behind to face him. In a final showdown, they shoot each other, but survive; Bunny convinces KD to see how Baba has been manipulating young recruits like them all along. More agents arrive to capture Bunny and Honey, but Bunny stands ready to fight back.

## Cast and characters
### Main

* Varun Dhawan as Raahi "Bunny" Gambhir, Honey's lover and Nadia's father
* Samantha as Hanimandakini "Honey" Raj, Bunny's lover and Nadia's mother / "Noorie" / "Maadhavi Kumar"
* Kashvi Majmundar as Nadia, daughter of Bunny and Honey
* Kay Kay Menon as Guru aliases "Baba" and "Vishwa"
* Sikandar Kher as Shaan
* Saqib Saleem as Kedar "KD"
* Simran Bagga as Zooni Shatsang alias "Eagle", Director of Citadel India and Guru's past friend
* Soham Majumdar as Ludo
* Shivankit Singh Parihar as Chacko

### Supporting

* Bhuvan Arora as Honey's actor friend
* Shashank Vyas as Vivek, the owner of a Bakery and Honey's friend
* Mohit R. Thakur as Jagan; Rahi, Chacko, and Ludo's friend
* Armaan Khera as Nakul
* Vikrant Koul as Agent Vinod
* Raimundo Querido as Jaby
* Michael Teh as Mr. Jiming
* Supurna Malakar as Leena, Chacko's wife
* Shilpi Arora as Guru's wife (Ep 1)
* Thalaivaasal Vijay as Dr. Raghu Rao (Ep 2-3)

#### Honey's family

* Ajith Koshy as Seshadri Raj, Narasimharaja's brother and Honey's uncle
* Yash Puri as Pratapa Rudra Raj, Honey's half-brother
* Mukhtar Khan as Raja Narasimharaja Pratap, Honey and Pratapa's father
* Shruthi Narayanan as Nanjamani, Honey's mother (Ep 2)
* Hardika Sharma as young Honey (Ep 2)
* Arush as young Pratapa, Honey's half-brother (Ep 2)
* Kamtam Kiran Kumar as Honey's husband

#### Bunny's family

* Jihan Jeetendra Hodar as young Bunny (Ep 2)
* Juhi Arora as Bunny's mother (Ep 2)

### Guest

* Aejaz Gulab as Stunt Master (Ep 1)
* Raksha Kumawat as Apartment Girl 1 (Ep 1)
* Shiva Rindani as the Film Director (Ep 1)
* Praveen Nithariya as Casting Director Amar (Ep 1)
* Izudin Bajrovic as Dr. Pavel, Dr. Raghu's friend and colleague
* Statsa Nikolic as Sofia, a girl Bunny met in the bar
* Parmeet Sethi as David D'Souza, Disc Keeper (Epi 1)
* Ajith Koshy as Guard Seshadri (Ep 2)

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | Length (minutes) |
| 1 | "Dancing and Fighting" | Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. | Sita R. Menon Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Dialogues: Sumit Arora | 6 November 2024 (2024-11-06) | 52 minutes |
| In 2000, Honey is raising her school-aged daughter Nainital. In 1992, Honey is auditioning to be an actress in Bombay. Guru, to whom Bunny reports, has the code-name "Vishwa". ||||||
| 2 | "Talwar" | Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. | Sita R. Menon Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Dialogues: Sumit Arora | 6 November 2024 (2024-11-06) | 55 minutes |
| 3 | "Spy Game" | Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. | Sita R. Menon Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Dialogues: Sumit Arora | 6 November 2024 (2024-11-06) | 47 minutes |
| 4 | "Home" | Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. | Sita R. Menon Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Dialogues: Sumit Arora | 6 November 2024 (2024-11-06) | 52 minutes |
| 5 | "Traitor" | Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. | Sita R. Menon Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Dialogues: Sumit Arora | 6 November 2024 (2024-11-06) | 43 minutes |
| 6 | "Play" | Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. | Sita R. Menon Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D.K. Dialogues: Sumit Arora | 6 November 2024 (2024-11-06) | 54 minutes |

## Production
### Development

In December 2022, Anthony and Joe Russo announced the Indian spin-off of Citadel.

### Casting

Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu play the lead cast in the series as Bunny and Honey.

### Filming

Filming of the series began in January 2023. The series was shot in Serbia and India. Filming wrapped on 13 July 2023.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 15 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave it 2 stars out of 5 with comments, "The series does not exactly go down in flames but neither does it have us holding our breath as its action set pieces explode on screen."