‘DAD KNOWS THE PULSE OF THE AUDIENCE’

Varun Dhawan says thanks to his father, David Dhawan, he has always heard about entertaining cinema at home; adds the idea is to make a good and entertaining film

See, today, it takes a lot of money to watch movies at a theatre, so if someone is spending so much and taking the family along as well, they want entertainment.

VARUN DHAWAN, ACTOR

Clearly, he has had a great run in Bollywood so far. And by now, one thing that’s become synonymous with Varun Dhawan’s films is their high entertainment value. Also, it’s interesting to note that his father, director David Dhawan, is famous for his ‘paisa-vasool’ entertainers. In fact, Varun readily admits that his choices of ‘entertaining’ films could be influenced by his father’s brand of commercial cinema.

“Undoubtedly, it’s something [entertaining cinema] that I have always heard [at home],” says Varun, adding that his dad “definitely knows the pulse” of the audience. “And what’s the pulse of the audience? See, today, it takes a lot of money to watch movies at a theatre, so if someone is spending so much and taking the family along as well, they want entertainment,” explains Varun, who is reportedly set to team up with his father again in the remake of the latter’s 1995 hit, Coolie No.1.

ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT

Varun, who debuted with an out-and-out commercial hit, Student of The Year in 2012, feels that one “can’t just make a good film”. “It has to be entertaining as well. In fact, the reason why I said yes to Sui Dhaaga (SD) — Made in India was because it was an entertaining film,” says the actor, adding: “You want something which will make you feel good, evoke an emotion or start a discussion wherein you think, ‘achcha laga yeh movie dekhke’ or you just feel inspired. Especially, if a family — be it from Bhopal, Bihar or anywhere else — goes to watch a film, they look for pure entertainment value.”

Talking of Sharat Katariya-directed SD, the film struck a chord with audiences resulting in it becoming another hit in his kitty. “It’s a complete family film and a very clean one, so I was very excited. Not just that, there’s so much for the youth as well. Plus, it speaks about how good our country is and that although there may be obstacles, people do get chances to succeed. So, it ticked a lot of boxes for me besides the fact that it worked for me commercially too, because of the love story and the family angle. That’s why box office wise also, it came across as something that audiences would like to see,” says Varun, adding that there is “no bigger genre in our country than the family genre.”

NEW JOURNEY

But, did Varun watch Sharat’s debut film, Dum Laga Ke Haisha (DLKH; 2015), and was it an influencing factor for him to greenlight SD? “I had watched DLKH and in fact, I am a big fan of that film. But honestly, I didn’t say yes to SD due to DLKH. If I had done that, then I would have given the green light to it with an aim to work in a film like DLKH, whereas I wanted to work in SD, which also had very wellwritten script. There are a lot of funny moments in it but at the same time, it’s very dramatic with loads of emotion, so it was a package,” he says.

Nowadays, talks are also rife that Varun is all set to launch a production house in collaboration with his father David Dhawan. Reportedly, it will be named No 1 Entertainment after David’s successful ‘No 1’ series. “Let dad be the one to announce that. He is the deserving one – the real number one (laughs). I am not denying anything but he should do the honours,” says Varun.