Actor Varun Tej is all set to enrapture the hearts of the audience with his much-anticipated film Operation Valentine. Ahead of the release, he interacts with Hyderabadi media, sharing his confidence on the director, the VFX of the film, and more.
K. Ramya Sree
Air Force action entertainer Operation Valentine will hit big screens on March 1 in Telugu and Hindi. Produced by Sony Pictures International Productions and Sandeep Mudda’s Renaissance Pictures and co-produced by God Bless Entertainment (Vakeel Khan) and Nandakumar Abbineni, the movie has set many expectations among the audience. Even megastar Chiranjeevi spoke highly of the film during its pre-release event.
He called this movie the first Air Force film in Telugu.
Directed by Shakti Pratap Singh Hada, the movie stars Varun Tej and Manushi Chillar in lead roles. The lead actor, interacting with the media on Tuesday, confessed that this story was told to him in the year 2020 itself.
He shared that he was very impressed with the story of the film in the first go and gained pretty much confidence in his director, Shakti, despite him being new to the industry because of the homework he did for the film and his passion to bring this story in front of the audience. He shared, “It is very important to have a leap of faith in every director. From my experiences in the past, I feel like one must know how passionate the director is about the story, and I saw that zeal and passion in him to tell the story of Operation Valentine to the audience. He did a lot of research. Even the Indian Air Force was very impressed by his short film, and they helped us a lot with the overall movie. The director explained the backstory to me very well to get the best in me for my role in the movie. They were very impressed with the overall output and gave us huge appreciation.”
The biggest lesson he learned while making this movie is—“I understood the value of life after meeting Air Force pilots.” The title of the movie has become the talk of the town. Valentine is always associated with the concept of love, whereas the story of this movie is about the Balakot and Pulwama attacks.
Revealing some interesting details about what went into headlining the film as Operation Valentine, he shared, “We initially thought of naming the movie Rudra, which is my character’s name in the movie. I felt it wouldn’t create that impact. This is a very serious operation. When the whole world celebrated Valentine’s Day, the Indian Air Force announced it as a black day after the Pulwama attack. The title is planned as a return gift to India. An answer to what happened on the 14th of February. ‘Valentine’ in this movie is the love for our country.” The hero and heroine are a couple in this movie, but they love the country more than each other.
The actor shared that he worked a very tight schedule for the movie and that he even delayed his wedding for this film. “We shot the film simultaneously in both Hindi and Telugu, and we could finish the film in just 70 days. We were on our toes for those 70 days. Shooting began in 2022. There were two muhurats while shooting the film, but I married only after I finished the shooting of Operation Valentine to avoid any distractions during the shoot. So I can come out of character and enjoy my break,” he said, adding, “I took Hindi diction classes too for two months. After three weeks of training, I started to practice my script in Hindi. I had my share of trouble while shooting in two languages simultaneously.”
This film has some VFX work done, and the actor confessed he had doubts while doing shots in VFX as to where to look and how to imagine things. To make it look very natural. He sat in the simulator that pilots use before getting on the plane for a week to get the actual feeling of being inside the plane. “That experience actually helped me a lot while I was shooting in VFX,” he shared.
While many were expressing doubt about the film, as Fighter too has a similar storyline, he feels confident that the Telugu audience will encourage a good film come what may. He said, “Telugu audiences are first in appreciating a good film. I wanted to give the Telugu audience something new, and this movie is its output. I don’t want to sign multiple signs at once, and I believe in quantity over quality. I slightly went off track during COVID, and I’m getting back to what I always believed.”
Furthermore, he said, “I don’t do every film for money. There are some movies I do solely out of passion. I am not scared to fall down. I have confidence in myself that I can drive the film and act.”
Lastly, he spilled the beans about his upcoming film, saying it was going to be a little wild. “It will be a grey character, and there is a lot of scope for performance,” he concluded.
Air Force action entertainer Operation Valentine will hit big screens on March 1 in Telugu and Hindi. Produced by Sony Pictures International Productions and Sandeep Mudda’s Renaissance Pictures and co-produced by God Bless Entertainment (Vakeel Khan) and Nandakumar Abbineni, the movie has set many expectations among the audience. Even megastar Chiranjeevi spoke highly of the film during its pre-release event.
He called this movie the first Air Force film in Telugu.
Directed by Shakti Pratap Singh Hada, the movie stars Varun Tej and Manushi Chillar in lead roles. The lead actor, interacting with the media on Tuesday, confessed that this story was told to him in the year 2020 itself.
He shared that he was very impressed with the story of the film in the first go and gained pretty much confidence in his director, Shakti, despite him being new to the industry because of the homework he did for the film and his passion to bring this story in front of the audience. He shared, “It is very important to have a leap of faith in every director. From my experiences in the past, I feel like one must know how passionate the director is about the story, and I saw that zeal and passion in him to tell the story of Operation Valentine to the audience. He did a lot of research. Even the Indian Air Force was very impressed by his short film, and they helped us a lot with the overall movie. The director explained the backstory to me very well to get the best in me for my role in the movie. They were very impressed with the overall output and gave us huge appreciation.”
The biggest lesson he learned while making this movie is—“I understood the value of life after meeting Air Force pilots.” The title of the movie has become the talk of the town. Valentine is always associated with the concept of love, whereas the story of this movie is about the Balakot and Pulwama attacks.
Revealing some interesting details about what went into headlining the film as Operation Valentine, he shared, “We initially thought of naming the movie Rudra, which is my character’s name in the movie. I felt it wouldn’t create that impact. This is a very serious operation. When the whole world celebrated Valentine’s Day, the Indian Air Force announced it as a black day after the Pulwama attack. The title is planned as a return gift to India. An answer to what happened on the 14th of February. ‘Valentine’ in this movie is the love for our country.” The hero and heroine are a couple in this movie, but they love the country more than each other.
The actor shared that he worked a very tight schedule for the movie and that he even delayed his wedding for this film. “We shot the film simultaneously in both Hindi and Telugu, and we could finish the film in just 70 days. We were on our toes for those 70 days. Shooting began in 2022. There were two muhurats while shooting the film, but I married only after I finished the shooting of Operation Valentine to avoid any distractions during the shoot. So I can come out of character and enjoy my break,” he said, adding, “I took Hindi diction classes too for two months. After three weeks of training, I started to practice my script in Hindi. I had my share of trouble while shooting in two languages simultaneously.”
This film has some VFX work done, and the actor confessed he had doubts while doing shots in VFX as to where to look and how to imagine things. To make it look very natural. He sat in the simulator that pilots use before getting on the plane for a week to get the actual feeling of being inside the plane. “That experience actually helped me a lot while I was shooting in VFX,” he shared.
While many were expressing doubt about the film, as Fighter too has a similar storyline, he feels confident that the Telugu audience will encourage a good film come what may. He said, “Telugu audiences are first in appreciating a good film. I wanted to give the Telugu audience something new, and this movie is its output. I don’t want to sign multiple signs at once, and I believe in quantity over quality. I slightly went off track during COVID, and I’m getting back to what I always believed.”
Furthermore, he said, “I don’t do every film for money. There are some movies I do solely out of passion. I am not scared to fall down. I have confidence in myself that I can drive the film and act.”
Lastly, he spilled the beans about his upcoming film, saying it was going to be a little wild. “It will be a grey character, and there is a lot of scope for performance,” he concluded.
