Varun Dhawan grew up watching his dad’s cinema and is deeply influenced by it. He talks to Karan Bhardwaj about choosing an out-and-out entertainer when his contemporaries Siddharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt are opting for unconventional projects
After the success of Karan Johar’s Student Of The Year, filmy pundits were quite keen to learn about the next move of three new kids on the block — Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. While Alia and Siddharth proved their mettle in their next outings — Highway and Hasee Toh Phasee respectively, Varun is all set to brave the audience today with Main Tera Hero. Tense, nervous and excited, the young lad met us while he was on a promotional tour here.
Though he looked dapper in white shirt and black trousers, the anxiety took over his excitement. “I am feeling the pressure. It’s nail biting time. I don’t want to get into the economics or the box office expectations but I hope that I don’t disappoint the audience and my fans. I would like to receive positive feedback. People should walk out from theatre with a smile on their faces. I don’t want to let anyone down,” said the actor while figuring out the hectic schedule with his media consultants for the day.
He seemed to be quite specific about his regular deals. Does he keep tab over career graph of his contemporariesIJ “Not really! I didn’t have time to know what other people are doing. I have been only busy with my movie,” he said. His SOTY co-star Alia received accolades not only for the award-winning performance in Highway but also for choosing the movie at an early stage of her career. Siddharth, too, got thumbs up for an unconventional love story Hasee Toh Phasee. Surprisingly, Varun opted for out-and-out entertainer like Main Tera Hero (MTH). “I think there’s too much of emphasis on the classification of cinema. A film should be able to wow the audience and touch the heart. I know Alia and Sid have done brilliant films but I chose to do MTH because none of my contemporary is touching this genre. My father (David Dhawan), who’s also the master of humorous entertainers, offered me the role because he could see it in me. I didn’t want to let him down. I had couple of films before MTH but I chose to begin it first. Be patient, I will be different in future and don’t wish to be predictable when it comes to selecting films,” he elucidated.
Varun is in complete awe of his dad’s cinema. “I grew up watching his films. That sense of humour is in-built. But MTH combines the humour of father and son,” he said. MTH was no cakewalk for junior Dhawan since his father never ‘fathered’ him on the sets. “It was difficult to adjust initially on sets. I come from KJO school of Bollywood and was not used to shoot in hectic schedules. So my father’s style was quite alien to me. He is a tough taskmaster. He never pampered me on sets. We would also have arguments at times over specific style of dialogues. For instance, he says pappi, and I would say kiss. But ultimately, I had to give up since he was the director. I had full faith in him,” he said.
The character of Sreenath Seenu Prasad is quite notorious. The actor said it’s difficult to draw parallels between his real personality and Seenu but there was a phase when he was really naughty. Having done two films, Varun has noted down a few lessons in the notebook. “I have calmed down. One thing that I have understood is that you really have to match your pace with the people around. I now know when I should invest my energy and when not. You really need to understand the demand and requirement of script and the filmmaker,” he said.