Varun Dhawan

Biography

Varun Dhawan (Hindi pronunciation: [ʋəɾʊɳ d̪ʱəʋən]; born 24 April 1987) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. One of India's highest-paid actors, he has been featured in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list in the 2010s. The son of film director David Dhawan, he graduated in business studies from Nottingham Trent University. He began his career as an assistant director to Karan Johar in My Name Is Khan (2010) and subsequently made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar's teen drama Student of the Year. He rose to prominence with leading 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). Dhawan also received praise for portraying an avenger in the thriller Badlapur (2015) and an aimless man coping with loss in the drama October (2018), roles that differed from his usual on-screen persona. This success was followed by several films that faced critical and commercial challenges starting with the period drama Kalank, though the 2022 releases the family drama Jugjugg Jeeyo and the horror comedy Bhediya were well-received. He has since had his highest-grossing release portraying Major Hoshiar Singh Dahiya in the war film Border 2 (2026), though this was accompanied by several films that performed poorly. Aside from acting, he is a prominent celebrity endorser for several brands and products. Off-screen, Dhawan is married to designer Natasha Dalal with whom he has a daughter.

== Early life == Dhawan was born on 24 April 1987 to David Dhawan, a film director, and Karuna Dhawan. His family is Punjabi Hindu. His elder brother, Rohit, is a film director known for his debut venture Desi Boyz, while his uncle, Anil, is an actor. His other relatives in the entertainment industry include his uncle, fashion designer Manish Malhotra, and his cousins Punit Malhotra and Kunal Kohli, both film directors. He completed his primary education at Bombay Scottish School, Mumbai and later completed his HSC education from the H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. He has a degree in business studies from the Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom.

== Career ==

=== 2012–2014: Early work and success ===

Prior to beginning his acting career, Dhawan worked as an assistant director to Karan Johar on the social drama My Name Is Khan (2010), where one of his fellow assistants was aspiring actor and former model Sidharth Malhotra. He made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar's teen film Student of the Year alongside Malhotra and Alia Bhatt, both in their film debuts. He was cast as Rohan Nanda, the teenage son of a rich businessman, who competes with his girlfriend (Bhatt) and best friend (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, "[i]t'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 commercial success, grossing ₹1.09 billion (US$11 million) worldwide. Dhawan next starred in 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 an impetuous brat who is involved in a love triangle. Raedita Tandon of Filmfare commended Dhawan on his comic timing and compared him favourably to Govinda and Prabhudheva. The film emerged as a commercial success grossing 780 million Indian rupees worldwide. 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, 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 his 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$12 million) worldwide.

=== 2015–2018: Established actor === The crime thriller Badlapur (2015) from director Sriram Raghavan saw Dhawan play Raghu, a father who over the course of 15 years avenges the murder of his wife and son. 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 his 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 the dance film ABCD 2, in which he portrayed the real-life character of Kings United 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 feature, 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 ₹1.67 billion (US$17 million) worldwide; the film's commercial performance led Box Office India to consider it an emergence of Dhawan's star power. Dhawan's 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. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film proved to be a commercial success, grossing over ₹3.75 billion (US$39 million) worldwide, 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 a rookie Indo-Emirati cop. Despite mixed reviews, the film proved to be successful at the box office grossing over ₹1.2 billion (US$12 million) worldwide. Dhawan reunited with Khaitan and Bhatt for the romantic comedy Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), in which he played the titular character, a chauvinist fiancé to Bhatt's 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". He received his second Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film. Later in 2017, he starred in his father's Judwaa 2 alongside Fernandez and Taapsee Pannu, a reboot of his 1997 Salman Khan starrer Judwaa. Both Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Judwaa 2 proved to be commercial successes, earning over ₹2 billion (US$21 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. October, written by Sircar's frequent collaborator Juhi Chaturvedi, saw him portray Danish 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[ing] 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.

=== 2019–present: Commercial fluctuations ===