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Exclusive interview with Varun Dhawan
His looks will charm you and his dance moves will definitely grab many eyeballs. Being a son of one of the biggest directors of Bollywood, David Dhawan, he has come into the industry all prepared. His recent film Badlapur has won him all the accolades he has been looking for since his debut movie Student Of The Year. He has broken his ‘charming boy’ image with Badlapur, the film that he was desperately in need for. Being in the Capital for the promotion of Badlapur, he gets candid for an interview with Abraxas NU.

Excerpts from the interview

What made you sign Badlapur?

I play a lover in Badlapur as well. As long as I don’t stop being a lover boy, I’m happy. I love being a lover boy. Lover boy and chocolate. These are the terms used for me. (laughs) And “bubbly” is the term used for Yami.

 What do you hope to achieve from your role in Badlapur?

What I do hope from this role is, not only for myself but for the sake of cinema, that different and interesting themes are made. Otherwise I feel that hum log same cheez banate rehte hain, I mean aap log hi likhthe ho ki “Old wine in a new bottle”. I read this in many reviews aur yeh mere dimag mein baith gaya kyunki “kyun likhthe hai yeh?” and “is the industry beginning to get repetitive?” The attempt is not to say that all that stuff is bad. All that stuff is great and I will be doing all those types of films. But the attempt is ki hum log kuch naya leke aye taki logo ka manoranjan ho. Badlapur is exactly that.

 For your character in the film, did you watch anything else to prepare for your role?

He gave me a full pen drive. The Irreversible, Dead Man Walking, 21 Grams, a Russian film called The Bench. So there were all these films that I saw in different languages. He also made me hear the music of Taxi Driver.

 Which film actually affected you the most?

I remember watching 21 Grams and getting quite haloed actually. And even Monica Bellucci’s The Irreversible was a very hardcore film.

But being at this kind of a level at this stage of your life, it is a big risk isn’t it?

See eventually at some age, we have to take the plunge. At one point in time, we have to have children. Kids have to learn how to walk, have to go to school and they have to give exams… So in the same way, I had to learn to do different types of films and I had to show the audience that they can accept me in something like that too. And the idea is to entertain.
Don’t get me wrong; the idea is still to entertain. I’m doing this film because I think that it’s an extremely entertaining film; it’s a very fast-paced edge-of-your-seat thriller. We’ve taken a lot of risks and we’ve taken them because it’s fun. And who wants to see the same type of safe film every time? This will make you uncomfortable but in a really cool way.

Concerning the actual end of Badlapur – hamare paas teen version the. Sriram Raghavan being Sriram chose the riskiest version for the end which you all of you will go home and think about. You’ll think the same way I think with my character, and Nawaz and Yami’s as well. I think every character has layers, none are just white or black – everyone’s character is painted in different shades.
Once the film has been released, you would think that there would be a lot of expectations that your fans would start having because you have this romantic-comedy actor tag on you. A very successful image. And now turning into a very intense character…

I’m not leaving the romantic comedy image. My next film after this is ABCD 2. But yeah with this attempt when I decided to do it, I said that either I’ll go for it or I won’t do it. There’s no half-baked thing that maroonga, aur phir smile doonga and background music bajega. It’s not that type of film. People are thinking that “Oh it’s a hardcore kind of film”; people do way worse in masala Hindi films. They kill, they throw bombs at each other, and they blow up people and all of that. But here this looks real because it is real. For the fans, it’s an emotional film. Whenever an emotion is attached to anything, you can feel for a character.

 

Were you affected psychologically while doing the film?

Yeah it did affect me because it was probably the first time that I’m doing something in this zone and I’m seeing things like that, and  I probably became a certain way which I’ve never been. Plus I’ve never done those things – in real life I don’t really have fights or abuse or even get angry for that matter. I did certain things in this film which I’m not used to doing in real life so it kind of shook me up a bit.

What is your opinion on the censor board?

I’ve grown up in this industry so the censor board rules and everything are not new to me. I’ve seen my father go through it his whole life and career. Desi Boyz was given an A rating for no reason at all – I mean why would you give an A? There are family values in that film. But the thing about the censor board is that I think we are criticising the wrong people. These dictates are given to them by someone else. All this comes down from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. We are criticising a group of people who we think have the power to change things, but the power to make the change is not in their hands.

The change has to come from above and then it goes down to them. The censor board people are just doing their job and they are becoming the fall guys. I think now we need to start using the right terms and addressing the right people if we want a change. That the change will only come if the entire industry is united and goes to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, has a meeting and tells them that “Sir, this is the reality and maybe people are ready to accept this this.” And of course, the Indian culture should be protected and kept.

Have you taken this initiative, with your father being a senior member?

I have always told him to do that and he knows a lot of people in the censor board. But you have to realise that age is something like that you know. Humari soch alag hai, we all are pretty young and in a different generation over here and we think differently. The older generation thinks differently. So somewhere we have to find that middle ground.

But if you see, there were very forward films being made in the 70s…

Yeah there’s some nudity in a Raj Kapoor film as well. Today we wouldn’t dare to do that.

All these films were so forward like Teesri Manzil, etc. What do you have to say about that?

I’ll give you the best example. My dad made Chashme Buddoor. In the original film, there’s that brilliant scene in the beginning where they’re passing the cigarette, pair se pakad rahe hai, ek pakkad se pakadtha hai and they pass it around. They couldn’t do that scene in the remake. I’m just saying that overall an approach has to be made but we as individuals cannot do it. The entire industry has to get together and do it, so my thing is that if you all make Badlapur do well, then I’ll get more power. If I get more power than maybe I can try and change things. The industry seems to have split over here. It’s not the industry; I think the entire nation is split over here. So the industry is just a small representative of the country.

All the actors of your generation – you, Siddharth, Alia, I just want to understand your psyche behind making movies like Badlapur. How conscious is it to be different and to stand out among the contemporaries?

I love being rebellious, but I’d rather be a rebel with a cause. Like my character in Main Tera Hero where I played Seenu and I kidnapped the professor’s daughter. That is also a kind of a rebel. It’s something that normal people don’t do. Or whether it’s in Humpty where I did other wrong and naughty things or whether now in Badlapur where I also play a very racy edgy character. The idea behind this is that I’m in search of new characters.

Because I’ve seen so many films throughout my childhood, I’ve grown up watching films, so I’m always in search of a character that’s going to be different and you guys seeing this character on screen will think “Arre this is a new character, yeh kuch naya ho gaya”. Everyone will drink this up like that. I want to drink it like that. I’m saying it might be wrong and might look bad, but it’s something new. And as creative artists it’s our job to try and create something new. That’s why they chose Nawaz and I. They could have very easily taken someone who is 8 ft. tall with a big body, super biceps and this and that. Yeh villain hai yeh woh hai. But that’s the cliché thing to do. Nawaz is more dangerous than anyone else.

When did you actually decide that acting is your call?

I think I decided very early that I wanted to do it. But I took a special dig at it when I started doing Barry John’s acting course. I remember doing that because I had heard throughout my childhood that Shahrukh had trained with Barry John in Delhi. When I went to Barry John, he’s quite a hardcore guy. Everything which I’ve actually learned from my theatre experience is in Badlapur for the first time.

You said that you miss your old life of the previous days. Do you miss your personal life?

Yeah a little bit. I miss chilling with my friends, because of the time. Yami’s become my friend – I’ve been trying to make her my friend for a long time (laughs). But I think we as actors discuss this a lot about how we don’t get time and how we want to spend more time with our close ones.

Also read – Journalist faces wrath of Alia Bhatt

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