Varun Tej is making his Bollywood debut with Operation Valentine which is due for release in 3 days on March 1st. Shakti Pratap Singh Hada directed this Telugu-Hindi bilingual.
Varun says the director narrated the story in 2020 itself. “I was supposed to do a film on Sony Pictures. But for some reason, it didn’t materialize. When Shakti approached me with this story, I felt Sony Pictures who are making patriotic movies would love it. They proposed to make the movie in two languages. We shot the movie in Telugu and Hindi simultaneously. I took 2 months of Hindi classes as well for the movie. I took special care of my diction.”
The actor affirms he didn’t feel it risky to do a war backdrop movie with a debutant. “Shakti is a passionate director. He did a lot of research for the movie. Before that, he made a short film which went viral. IAF officials too were surprised to see his work. They gave him the necessary information. He has a good hold on VFX as well.”
Varun reveals the reason behind the title Operation Valentine. “The Pulwama Incident happened on February 14th, 2019. The Indian Air Force conducted an operation to take revenge on the enemies behind the incident. Since these surgical strikes were planned on Valentine's Day as a return gift to the enemy, we named it Operation Valentine. Valentine in this movie means our love for the country. We showed this film to Air Force officers. They praised it saying 'Operation Valentine' is the best movie on the Pulwama incident so far. ‘This is a movie that every Indian can emotionally connect with,’ said they.”
Varun informs that Pawan Kalyan liked the teaser and watched it 5 times.