Varun Dhawan is open to co-starring in films that have female protagonists, but not as eye-candy
Sarita A Tanwar (DNA; July 23, 2015)

Notice how films that have heroines as leading ladies, never have an A-list male actor opposite them? Let’s look at recent examples. Anushka Sharma has played second fiddle to stars Shah Rukh Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, but for NH10, in which she was the ‘hero’, she had to settle for a Neil Bhoopalam as her co-star. Ditto for Priyanka Chopra, when she starred in and as Mary Kom. Her co-star was a Darshan Kumaar and not Akshay Kumar.

It’s not fair that actresses play the role of an ornament to top stars all the time. But when they act in a female-oriented film, they don’t get an A-List actor as a co-star. Varun Dhawan is about to change that. Ask him if he will do a film where the heroine is the protagonist, he shoots back, “Ya, why not? I mean I should have a damn important part to play, screenplay-wise or impact-wise. If I have a great part that is making a difference to the film, I would gladly do it, even if it is a small part. But I don’t want to be eye-candy in that film, that I won’t do. My character should be important to the subject and in making a change.”

Ask him why he would do that when he can play ‘hero’ in every film and he explains, “Why would I? Because I feel that it’s a story that is needed to be told. There are some stories in the world that lot of actors and even audiences don’t want to look at. Because maybe they are very gory or very disturbing in nature. People don’t want to see them, but they are the truth. Like Badlapur. It was based on a true-life story of a man. Everyone told me don’t do the film. Not one person said do the film. I just believed in the story. So I did it. Badlapur is an experience, I will never give up that for anything in the world. I am looking for something to push, to do something new, to tell a story which people think should not be told.”