Varun Dhawan

Varun Dhawan born 24 April 1987 is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. One of the country’s highest-paid celebrities, he has featured in Forbes India‘s Celebrity 100 list since 2014. Born to the film director David Dhawan, he studied business management from the Nottingham Trent University, after which he worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the 2010 drama My Name Is Khan. Eventually, across his foray into acting, he became the only actor in the history of Indian cinema to feature in eleven box-office successes in a row from the inception of his career.

Dhawan made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar’s teen drama Student of the Year. He rose to prominence with starring roles in the romantic comedies Main Tera Hero (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); the action comedies Dilwale (2015), Dishoom (2016), and Judwaa 2 (2017); the dance film ABCD 2 (2015); and the drama Sui Dhaaga (2018). He also received praise for playing an avenger in the crime thriller Badlapur (2015) and an aimless man coping with loss in the drama October (2018). The success of all these eleven films was followed by commercial failures in the period drama Kalank (2019) and the musical dance-drama Street Dancer 3D (2020), as well as a critical failure in the Amazon Prime Video-presented comedy-drama Coolie No. 1 (2020).

Early life

Dhawan was born on 24 April 1987 to David Dhawan, a film director, and Karuna Dhawan. His family is Punjabi. His elder brother, Rohit, is a film director known for his debut venture Desi Boyz, while his uncle, Anil, is an actor. He completed his HSC education from the H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. Dhawan has a degree in Business Management from the Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom. Prior to his acting career, Dhawan worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the film My Name Is Khan (2010).

Career

2012—2016: Debut and success

Dhawan made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar’s romantic comedy drama Student of the Year alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt. He was confident as Rohan Nanda, the teenage son of a rich businessman, who competes with his girlfriend Shanaya (Bhatt) and best friend Abhimanyu (Malhotra) to win an annual school championship. Film critic Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama found Dhawan to be “a talent one can’t help but marvel at” and CNN-IBN’s Rajeev Masand added: “It’s Varun Dhawan who stands out with a confident, charming turn, able to tackle both comical and vulnerable scenes with ease”. Student of the Year was a success, grossing ₹970 million (US$14 million) worldwide, and Dhawan’s performance earned him a Best Male Debut nomination at Filmfare.

Following a year long absence from the screen, similar to that of co-stars Bhatt and Malhotra who had their second releases before him in 2014, Dhawan appeared in two films, the first of which was the romantic comedy Main Tera Hero (2014), a remake of the Telugu film Kandireega, which was produced by Balaji Motion Pictures and directed by his father David. He played Sreenath “Seenu” Prasad, an impetuous brat who is involved in a love triangle between his true love interest Sunaina Goradia, played by Ileana D’Cruz, and his one-sided lover Ayesha Singhal, the daughter of a dreaded gangster-cum-don, played by Nargis Fakhri. Raedita Tandon of Filmfare commended Dhawan on his comic timing and compared him favorably to Govinda and Prabhudheva.The film emerged as a commercial success

Dhawan then played Rakesh, a flirtatious Punjabi boy who engages in a romantic affair with an engaged Punjabi woman, in Shashank Khaitan’s romantic comedy Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Co-starring Bhatt and debutant television actor Sidharth Shukla, the film was described as a tribute to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) by Johar, who served as producer. Rohit Khilnani of India Today praised Dhawan’s screen presence, and Nandini Ramnath of Mint noted how much he stood out in the “few quieter scenes” of the film. Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania emerged as one of top-grossing Indian productions of the year, earning ₹1.11 billion (US$16 million) worldwide.

The crime thriller Badlapur (2015) from director Sriram Raghavan saw Dhawan play Raghav “Raghu” Purohit, a man from Pune who over the course of 15 years avenges the murder of his wife and son in a robbery-gone-wrong. Portraying Raghu was a “terrifying” experience for Dhawan, who “slipped into depression as after a point it no longer felt like I was acting in a film”. Raja Sen of Rediff.com praised Dhawan’s acting range, writing that he “sheds his easy-breezy charm — but, crucially, not his slightly hapless natural likeability — and bubbles up volcanically, his eyes frequently doing the talking.” He received a Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance.

Dhawan next starred opposite Shraddha Kapoor in a sequel to the dance film ABCD: Any Body Can Dance, titled Disney’s ABCD 2, in which he portrays the real-life character of Kings United India founder Suresh Mukund, a dancer from Mumbai who went on to win the 2012 World Hip Hop Dance Championship. Critic Shilpa Jamkhandikar of Reuters criticised the film, finding Dhawan to be the only asset of the film, writing that “except for the honest note he strikes, the rest of the film could have been just a bunch of music videos”. ABCD 2 earned ₹1.57 billion (US$22 million) worldwide; the film’s commercial performance led Box Office India to consider it an emergence of Dhawan’s star power. His final appearance that year was in Rohit Shetty’s ensemble action drama Dilwale, co-starring Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Kriti Sanon, in which he played the younger sibling of Khan’s character, as well as Sanon’s love interest. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film proved to be a commercial success, grossing over ₹3.75 billion (US$53 million), emerging as Dhawan’s highest-grossing release and one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films. He next appeared in the action cop comedy Dishoom (2016), directed by Rohit, alongside John Abraham and Jacqueline Fernandez, as Junaid “J” Ansari, a rookie Indo-Emirati cop. Despite mixed reviews, the film proved to be successful at the box office grossing over ₹1.2 billion (US$17 million).

2017—present: Established actor and setbacks

Dhawan reunited with Khaitan and Bhatt for the romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), a spin-off to Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, in which he played the titular character, a chauvinist fiancé to Bhatt’s prtagonistic character. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express wrote that Dhawan “impresses as a boy-struggling-to-be-a-man”. In addition, Tushar Joshi of Daily News and Analysis noted that “Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt prove that on screen chemistry can be enough sometimes to keep you engaged in an average plot with a predictable narrative”. Dhawan received his second Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film. Later in 2017, he starred in David’s comedy film Judwaa 2, a reboot of the 1997 comedy film Judwaa, alongside Jacqueline Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu. Both Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Judwaa 2 proved to be commercial successes, earning over ₹2 billion (US$28 million) each. Forbes published that with nine consecutive box office hits and a 100% success ratio, Dhawan had established himself as a “bona fide Bollywood superstar”.

Dhawan had two releases in 2018, Shoojit Sircar’s drama October and Sharat Katariya’s social problem film Sui Dhaaga, both of which earned him rave critical acclaim for his performances. October, written by Sircar’s frequent collaborator Juhi Chaturvedi, saw him portray Danish “Dan” Walia, an aimless hotel management trainee whose life undergoes a series of changes when his co-worker goes into a coma. In a highly positive review, Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost commended Dhawan for “effac his starry swagger and trademark cutesiness to play Dan”; Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times considered it to be his finest performance to date and wrote that “his humour is innate, but his understanding of pain and how it affects the human behaviour is even better”. Sui Dhaaga featured Dhawan and Anushka Sharma respectively as Mauji and Mamta, a newly-wed couple in rural India who begin their own small-scale clothing business. Udita Jhunjunwala of Mint reviewed, “Dhawan has perfected the template for playing a simpleton. He brings a similar naiveté to Mauji, albeit endearingly.” For October, he received a nomination for the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. The same year, he cameoed alongside Kapoor in a special appearance for the music video of “High Rated Gabru”, a song by Guru Randhawa, whose recreation by Randhawa was featured on the soundtrack of Nawabzaade, the production debut of his ABCD 2 director Remo D’Souza.

Dhawan’s only screen appearance in 2019 was in Abhishek Varman’s ensemble period drama Kalank, in which he was once again paired opposite Bhatt, while working for the first time with actresses Madhuri Dixit and Sonakshi Sinha, as well as actors Sanjay Dutt and Aditya Roy Kapur, in the lead role(s). Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, the film featured him as a womanizing blacksmith named Zafar; for the physical demands of the part, he trained extensively despite suffering from a knee injury and hamstring tear, and insisted on performing his own stunts. Labelling it as the “meatiest role of his career”, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV wrote, “Dhawan exudes zest as he ventures well beyond his comfort zone and consistently strikes the right notes”. He began the new decade by reuniting with Kapoor and D’Souza to portray Sahej Singh Narula, an arrogant British-Indian dancer who heads the titular dance crew, in the musical dance-drama Street Dancer 3D (2020), a quasi-spinoff to ABCD 2, which Namrata Joshi of The Hindu termed a “compilation of indistinguishable performances”. Neither film performed well commercially, causing his career to suffer a setback.

Dhawan then reunited with father David to collaborate a third time for Coolie No. 1, a 2020 adaptation of the Govinda-starrer 1995 film of the same name, which skipped cinema release owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and instead streamed directly online on Amazon Prime Video. Critical reception to the film was embarrasingly negative, largely in light of the nepotism debate sparked off by the untimely demise of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. A scathing review by Shubhra Gupta for The Indian Express called the film a “zero wit, no flair” disaster, noting that Dhawan had “channelled Govinda in many of his films much better”, and criticized his co-star Sara Ali Khan’s act, calling it “as vacuous as the script”.

Dhawan is currently shooting for Raj Mehta’s Jug Jugg Jeeyo, produced by Dharma Productions and co-starring Kiara Advani, Anil Kapoor, Neetu Singh and Prajakta Koli. Post its completion, he will jump into Maddock Films producer Dinesh Vijan’s horror comedy Bhediya directed by Amar Kaushik and Sajid Nadiadwala’s mass action film Sanki directed by Anurag Singh. In September 2021, Dhawan will begin shooting for Ekkis, a biographical war film directed by Raghavan and produced by Vijan, about military officer Arun Khetarpal.

Other work

Alongside his acting career, Dhawan performs on stage and has co-hosted two award ceremonies. In 2013, he performed at the Filmfare, Screen, and Stardust award ceremonies, and at an event in Hong Kong. He hosted the 2013 Stardust Awards ceremony with Sidharth Malhotra and Ayushmann Khurrana, and a segment of the 59th Filmfare Awards. He was also part of the 20th Screen Awards, co-hosting the show alongside Shahrukh Khan and Richa Chadda. In 2013, Dhawan performed at a special event alongside Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. He also donated Rs. 30 Lakhs in PM-CARES Fund of Government of India during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Personal life and media image

Dhawan has appeared in Forbes India‘s Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the 15th position in 2018, when the magazine estimated his annual income to be ₹495.8 million (US$7.0 million) and listed him as one of the highest-paid celebrities in the country. In the same year, the Indian edition of GQ featured him among the nation’s 50 most influential young people and labelled him as the “most bankable star of his generation”.

During work on Jugg Jugg Jeeyo across a schedule in Chandigarh, Dhawan and co-star Neetu Singh tested positive for COVID-19, and later resumed shooting after treatment.

On 24 January 2021, Dhawan married fashion designer Natasha Dalal, with whom he had attended school and been in a romantic relationship with for 10 years. 

Filmography

Key

Denotes films that are in production

Year	Film	Role(s)	Notes
2010	My Name Is Khan	—	Assistant director
2012	Student of the Year	Rohan Nanda
2014	Main Tera Hero	Sreenath “Seenu” Prasad
	Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania	Rakesh “Humpty” Sharma	Also playback singer for song “Lucky Tu Lucky Me”
2015	Badlapur	Raghav “Raghu” Purohit
	ABCD 2	Suresh “Suru” Mukund	Also playback singer for song “Happy Birthday”
	Dilwale	Veer Bakshi
2016	Dishoom	Junaid Ansari
2017	Badrinath Ki Dulhania	Badrinath “Badri” Bansal
	Judwaa 2	Raja/Prem Malhotra
2018	October	Danish “Dan” Walia
	Nawabzaade	Unnamed	Special appearance in song “High Rated Gabru”
	Sui Dhaaga	Mauji Sharma
2019	Kalank	Zafar Chaudhary
2020	Street Dancer 3D	Sahej Singh Narula
	Coolie No. 1	Raju Coolie / Kunwar Raj Pratap Singh	Released on Amazon Prime Video
2021	Jug Jugg Jeeyo	TBA	Filming

Awards and nominations

Year	Film	Award	Category	Result
2013	Student of the Year	BIG Star Entertainment Awards	Most Entertaining Actor (Film) Debut – Male	Nominated
		Filmfare Awards	Best Male Debut	Nominated
		Screen Awards	Most Promising Newcomer – Male	Nominated
		Lions Gold Awards	Favorite Debut (Male)	Won
		Zee Cine Awards	Best Male Debut	Nominated
		Stardust Awards	Breakthrough Performance – Male	Won
			Superstar of Tomorrow – Male	Nominated
		Star Guild Awards	Best Male Debut	Nominated
2015	Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania	Stardust Awards	Best Actor – Comedy/Romance	Won
			Superstar of Tomorrow – Male (also for Main Tera Hero)	Nominated
		Screen Awards	Best Actor	Nominated
		Star Guild Awards	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Nominated
		BIG Star Entertainment Awards	Most Entertaining Actor in a Romantic Film – Male	Nominated
	Main Tera Hero		Most Entertaining Actor in a Comedy Film – Male	Nominated
			Most Entertaining Actor – Male	Nominated
		Star Guild Awards	Best Actor in a Comic Role	Won
		Screen Awards	Best Actor (Popular Choice)	Nominated
		International Indian Film Academy Awards	Best Performance in a Comic Role	Won
2016	Badlapur	Filmfare Awards	Best Actor	Nominated
		BIG Star Entertainment Awards	Most Entertaining Actor in a Thriller Film – Male	Won
			Most Entertaining Actor in an Action Film – Male	Won
	ABCD 2	Star Guild Awards	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Nominated
	Dilwale	International Indian Film Academy Awards	Best Actor	Nominated
2017	Dishoom	Zee Cine Awards	Best Actor in a Comic Role	Nominated
		Star Screen Awards	Star Screen Award for Best Comedian	Won
		International Indian Film Academy Awards	Best Performance in a Comic Role	Won
2018	Badrinath Ki Dulhania	Star Screen Awards	Best Actor in a Comic Role	Won
			Best Actor – Male (Popular)	Nominated
		Filmfare Awards	Best Actor	Nominated
		Lions Gold Awards	Favourite Best Actor	Won
		Zee Cine Awards	Best Actor (Jury’s Choice) – Male	Won
	Judwaa 2		Best Actor (Viewer’s Choice) – Male	Nominated
		Star Screen Awards	Best Actor in a Comic Role	Nominated
	October	Indian Film Festival of Melbourne	Best Actor	Nominated
		Jagran Film Festival	Best Actor – Male	Won
2019		Filmfare Awards	Critics Best Actor in a Leading Role (Male)	Nominated
		Lions Gold Awards	Best Actor Par Excellence (Male)	Won
	Sui Dhaaga	Zee Cine Awards	Best Actor (Viewer’s Choice) – Male	Nominated