Varun Dhawan is a star and some people even predict that he will be the next Salman Khan. This 30-year-old actor has been on top of his game, devoid of a single flop in his kitty. While he is touted for his six pack abs, dance numbers and commercial films, he is also known for his experimental turns, where he is eager to bare his range as an actor with films like Badlapur and now Shoojit Sircar’s October.
I have met Varun a number of times and his energy is infectious. So this time when he entered the room where the interviews were being conducted, he exuded the same smile and warmth but something about him had changed. His walk, his body language, his way of greeting others was more reserved. While chatting with him I realised what had caused this transition.
Varun Dhawan had to transform himself to be Danish Walia (his character in October) and the process has been anything but easy. Varun says that when he started the film he went as a viewer with the knowledge of Shoojit Sircar as the director of formidable films like Pink and Piku. He didn't expect anything. He knew he had to do things differently but he didn’t know that he would be required to go through a drastic change.
Varun Dhawan: First he (Shoojit Sircar) calmed my voice down , he calmed my energy down, he changed my walk completely. The only thing that we reshot in this film was my walk. In the hotel there were a lot of walks. Shots of walks from the back and Shoojit da would say 'Tu hero lag raha hai' and I said 'Hero lag raha hoon?' ...he is like 'You are walking like Judwaa' and I would be like... 'No dada I am not walking like that' ...he is like 'Nahi Varun main bol raha hoon'. Then we started shooting and we shot for seven days and then I went back to him and told him,'Ya, dada... I am feeling different now, I have figured out a different walk'. There were nights that I would just walk in the corridor and that’s when I figured out that I was walking with my legs outside and I changed that and I obviously stopped picking up weights all together for the thirty five days. Then after those seven days, it just flowed I think.
The change in mannerisms was just the tip of the iceberg but the process of filming October changed him as a person. My question was how did he manage to tone himself down.
Varun Dhawan: You know it really works if you don't look at your phone. So much of our anxiety and stress comes from these devices and the first thing in the morning we do is check Whatsapp, check what's happening on Twitter, how many likes who has got and this can lead to a lot of things.
So the first thing that Shoojit da did is...he said, “You don’t see your phone, go and stare at some plant or nature, if nothing is there, then listen to this music...”Varun Dhawan, Actor
Varun Dhawan: He gave me Hare Rama Hare Krishna by Jahnavi Harrison which was my go to music. Then Free Falling by Tom Petty... then I heard a lot of old songs like Nirvana... that I liked, Jim Morrison which I would hear in college. So I had my list of music, I made an October soundtrack that I would listen to, which I actually shared with Shantanu Moitra also. He had asked me what are you listening to? I need to know what Dan (Varun's character name in October) is feeling.
It was for the first time people were caring about what I was feeling as an actor. Before that nobody cared, they were like you are getting paid, just come and give your shot.Varun Dhawan, Actor
Varun Dhawan: Here they were caring. I think it's their process, they work like it's their family you know.
It did feel like Varun was moved with the whole process of Shoojit Sircar’s filmmaking and it was his first experience into something like this. He admits that being vulnerable was the hardest part of playing this character.
Varun Dhawan: I have never been that vulnerable in front of a crew you know. After a while it stopped feeling like shooting. When you are shooting, you face a block that it's just a film but when you forget that it's a film, it feels like this is life, the flood gates open.
There is a part when I start crying on the sets and crying means embarrassing crying not like hero ‘type’ of crying. It was like for five to six minutes of crying, it was strange. I just cried cried and cried and when I stopped crying he (Shoojit Sarkar) just came, put his hand on my shoulder and said ‘Ab shot de’.Varun Dhawan, Actor
Varun Dhawan: But the way he broke the scenes down was unbelievable and after that he would say 'What would Dan do?' He would ask me. I would be like 'Hmmm...Dan would have done this' and he would be like 'So you do what Dan would do'.
By now you must be wondering if this man would ever be able to get back to his usual nach gana films after this experience which he calls ‘a spiritual rehab’. But Varun says that he never got the chance to question his choice of films because the filming (October) proceeded so seamlessly that it ceased to be just a film. He started questioning life itself.
I was questioning my decisions as a human being about my day to day life, day to day relationships and things like that. It went beyond my career. I think it did change me for sure but I don’t know whether I want to change so much.Varun Dhawan, Actor
Varun Dhawan: See you have to move from film to film but there are certain ideals as a human being that I had lost in this five to six year journey, which I gained back through this film. It was a kind of a spiritual rehab working with him.
The reason I call it spiritual rehab because this film was almost like getting a heartbreak and then mending the heart. I think he (Shoojit Sarkar) had planned this. We continued shooting for 35 days non stop, in Dwarka, in Delhi and other parts. A big part of the film - they held from me. They told me just before shooting it ki ab ye hoga and I was like 'DON'T'... literally shocked. And purposely they didn't tell me. The whole unit knew and Banita knew... I didn't know this part of the story and Shoojit sir told her ‘Don't tell him this I want him to know this just before the shot so that I get his correct reaction.’ I was so devastated leaning this is what happens in the film, heartbroken almost. So to get out of it, last three days, I was in Manali, which was unbelievably beautiful. That part of the schedule was resetting. ‘Ab tereko jod diya hai wapas ja ab tu’
If you are wondering that even in Badlapur Varun played this heartbroken man, who lost his family then Varun makes it very clear that it is nothing like Badlapur.
Varun Dhawan: Sriram Raghavan is a very different director and Shoojit Sircar is very different. In Badlapur Sriram wanted me to suffer somewhere. If I wouldn't have gone through the trauma, it wouldn't have shown but here in October it was just about being unaware and surrendering.
In every scene you are not supposed to give your 200% and be like ‘understand this’. Don’t do anything to explain the audience.Varun Dhawan, Actor
Varun Dhawan: Suppose like I am telling you all this, you guys are just looking at me without an expression that doesn't mean you are not understanding. In films what we do is (makes an over the top expression)...you are spoon feeding the audience which is also difficult because it is so exhausting to keep doing that, it's not easy.
Without a single flop film to his name yet, it looks like he has got the lifetime membership of the Rs 100 crore club. But guess what? He is ready to give up his membership and concentrate on more important things than just the numbers.
Varun Dhawan: One very big film star told me this that we have only started this 100 crore club trend. The worst thing we did is putting out these numbers. There was a time when we would not put out these numbers, you know. First these100 crores - we actors are not getting the whole amount. When the film makes Rs 100 crores, it doesn't come to me. Then we do success parties and ask the media to cover it, then PR asks the media to tweet all these numbers. It has become a very unhealthy trend.
I am also part of the problem. Probably I am the worst in this. Over-marketing films is something I started doing among the young people and a lot of the other stars will always tell me, ‘Why are you doing so much. Tu itna karta hai fir hum logo ko karna parta hai...’Varun Dhawan, Actor
Varun Dhawan: That day Anushka was telling me when Philluri was releasing before that Badri released and Fox was only handling so they were like 'Varun idhar ja raha hai, Varun udhar ja raha hai.' She is like 'Haan Varun tho idhar udhar jata rehta hai par humko nahi jana hai'. I am going to promote but for important things I love performing for crowds and all, so I am still going to do that for free. I love going to colleges and dance because I get to meet my fans and I enjoy that and I'll do that.
But I am going to sell my films less. I want to start a trend where I do interviews post the release.Varun Dhawan, Actor
I couldn’t believe it is the same actor talking who just gave us a blockbuster Bollywood masala film like Judwaa 2 with over-the-top EVERYTHING. But guess what as an actor it was much difficult for him to walk on the sets of a Shoojit Sircar film and unlearn everything he ever knew to an extent that he had to unlearn acting itself.
Varun Dhawan: I have just come post Judwaa which is such a big success and now for me to come and believe that this is right and he would just say don't act. He says if you act I'll cut the scene. 'Cut cut cut cut cut' and I was like 'What happened?' he would say 'You are acting' and I was like 'but sir shot chal raha hai' he is like 'So? You don't do anything, you just listen to what the other person is saying and when you feel like saying your dialogue, then you say it. Even if you feel like saying it after five minutes, say it after five minutes. But only when you understand, then say it. So many times someone has told me something, I didn't understand it straight away. As human beings it takes time to process, so I have taken time to process and then said the dialogue and he has kept it. He has kept stares of mine which are blank but which happen in daily life and that is his genius as a director.’
So my insecurity of me boring people, of me being dull, he has just removed. He has removed my makeup, like I had a pimple over here (pointing at his temple) and I put makeup over it, he has come and removed the makeup on it and he told the makeup man, ‘Dada aap bahar khade raho’.
Varun Dhawan: His favourite thing was to spoil my hair all the time. One day he said 'Don't wash your face today' and I was like 'Matlab?' he said 'Don't take a bath today, aise hi aa jana...' Then suddenly at 11.30pm after eating dinner he is telling me 'Tu aaj sona mat' . He knew what he was doing. He knew exactly the kind of effect it would have on me.
Sounds like this hero got a chance to see life without the rose-tinted glasses and we are loving this new Varun Dhawan.
Varun Dhawan: It's a different kind of heartbreak. It is not the puppy love wala heartbreak. It's also a heart break of understanding what the world is. You know when you are a kid, you have a different imagination that the world is like that and then you actually see the world. The first time you go for your first job and someone talks to you badly and you are like 'even my parents have not spoken to me like this' ...that happens to all of us. So that's why it was so important for me to put in that work in that hotel because I was also getting frustrated at that time. I was cleaning lifts when the camera was not even shooting me. He is telling me there is a spot missing over there and I said ‘sir camera hi nahi on hai!’ but he was like 'toh kya hua, tera kaam hai karneka'. But I started enjoying it later on.
Doing the chores in the hotel was so liberating for me as a human being. Actually wiping something, actually serving someone. Now I know how to make coffee in the coffee machine. First the smoke comes, it cleans the whole thing, then the water comes, how to make Cappuccino, how to make Americano... where to keep sugar free. These things were so liberating. I have dropped a lot of glasses let me tell you this.Varun Dhawan, Actor
Great to know this new ‘you’, Mr. Dhawan 2.0, and for the next time we meet, I like my Cappuccino hot with one teaspoon of sugar.