Playing the character Dhupati Hari Babu in 'Kanche', a Telugu language war film in 2015, Promoted as Telugu cinema's first World War II-based film, Kanche was released worldwide on 22 October 2015, on 700 screens, and received a positive reception from critics. It grossed ?20 crores on a budget of ?10?crore and became one of the highest-grossing Telugu films of the year. 'Kanche' earned the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu at the 63rd National Film Awards ceremony and the state Nandi Award for Best Film on National Integration. The film was screened at the 2016 edition of the All Lights India International Film Festival. The film is considered one of the '25 Greatest Telugu Films Of The Decade'?Varun Tej played the role of Dhupati Haribabu, a captain in the British Indian Army. Varun Tej described the first phase of Haribabu's character as a 23-year-old college pass-out, happy-go-lucky, chilled-out guy. He had to modify his diction according to the timeline and observed the dialogue delivery of actors in old Telugu films. For the second phase, Varun Tej was trained by an army officer on a soldier's body language, and the way to hold guns among other things. He watched films like Saving Private Ryan (1988), The Thin Red Line (1998), Inglourious Basterds(2009), and Fury (2014) as well. He underwent training in a boot camp for more than a week, during the gap between the Indian and Georgia schedules. During the filming of the war sequences in Georgia, Varun Tej was provided with an original Thompson submachine gun, which was manufactured in 1939, and used during the actual war.