Stereotype of the star has now been broken-Varun Sharma
7:57 AM
Following
the super success of his last release, Fukrey Returns, actor Varun
‘Choocha’ Sharma has gone from running behind people for roles to being
approached with scripts
Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 3, 2018)
Jalandhar boy Varun Sharma won’t admit that he’s finally made it with the success of Fukrey Returns, in which he reprised his role as the lovable Choocha from the 2013 original. Instead, he gushes evasively, “In an industry where movie posters are dominated by chiselled bodies, there’s Fukrey Returns, with a chubby boy beaming on its posters. Content really is everything and I’m still coming to terms with the crazy numbers the sequel has achieved.”
The 27-yar-old actor goes on to recall walking into the 1400-seater Gaiety Galaxy on a Sunday which was packed to capacity for a latenight show. “The kind of reaction the film got is usually reserved for the Khans!” Varun exults, adding, “There was whistling, hooting, clapping for the fukras and Bholi Punjaban (played by Richa Chadha). I cried in the car on my way home. It was unreal. The stereotype of a star has been broken because people are in love with characters now,” the actor reflects.
For Varun, the road to screen glory has been paved with exasperatingly miniscule breakthroughs — he made tea and served as a production runner on Om Puri’s Brit comedy West Is West and Pankaj Kapur’s Shahid and Sonam Kapoor-starrer directorial debut, Mausam, was once thrown out of a film just a day before it rolled, and in another case, was asked to leave an audition for an ad because “he didn’t look the part”. “I used to collect food menus from restaurants and ask the cast and crew what they wanted. I also did odd jobs like printing the scripts and giving it to the actors. On the side, I began auditioning for nonspeaking roles,” he reminisces, adding candidly that everything felt exciting for a “nobody from Jalandhar”.
Varun was in college when the acting bug bit him but his initiation into the profession was far from conventional. “I realized during my student days in Chandigarh that the best way to get close to acting was to join a casting agency. I interned with (casting director) Nandini Shrikent and got to see how actors read for films like Talaash, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Soon, I started auditioning too. I was filled with aspirations and even small gigs exceeded my expectations,” he smiles.
As a result of his early experiences, Varun believes that he is a product of Bollywood’s casting system and fervently vouches for budding actors who are eager to go through the gruelling motions of auditions day after day. “Many aspiring actors, including many of my friends, take auditions lightly but I am a classic example of auditions putting a rank newcomer on a movie poster. Now, my life has moved from auditions to narrations. It’s the most beautiful phase. I was running behind people for a role and now they come to me with scripts,” Varun shares.
After working with Abhishek Dogra in the Sonam Kapoor-starrer comedy Dolly Ki Doli in 2015, Varun recently wrapped up the filmmaker’s next, Fry Day, an Anees Bazmee production in which he features alongside Govinda. He also reveals that he is all set to announce another big project soon but for now he is happier about an upcoming holiday with his extended family to the Maldives that he’s putting together for his mother’s birthday next month.
Before that happens, he’s binge watching Black Mirror and Peeky Blinders as he takes his time considering each project that comes to him in the wake of this recent success. “For now, it’s narrations and lots of script readings, with a resolution that I’ll successfully learn how to play the drums this year,” he signs off.
Jalandhar boy Varun Sharma won’t admit that he’s finally made it with the success of Fukrey Returns, in which he reprised his role as the lovable Choocha from the 2013 original. Instead, he gushes evasively, “In an industry where movie posters are dominated by chiselled bodies, there’s Fukrey Returns, with a chubby boy beaming on its posters. Content really is everything and I’m still coming to terms with the crazy numbers the sequel has achieved.”
The 27-yar-old actor goes on to recall walking into the 1400-seater Gaiety Galaxy on a Sunday which was packed to capacity for a latenight show. “The kind of reaction the film got is usually reserved for the Khans!” Varun exults, adding, “There was whistling, hooting, clapping for the fukras and Bholi Punjaban (played by Richa Chadha). I cried in the car on my way home. It was unreal. The stereotype of a star has been broken because people are in love with characters now,” the actor reflects.
For Varun, the road to screen glory has been paved with exasperatingly miniscule breakthroughs — he made tea and served as a production runner on Om Puri’s Brit comedy West Is West and Pankaj Kapur’s Shahid and Sonam Kapoor-starrer directorial debut, Mausam, was once thrown out of a film just a day before it rolled, and in another case, was asked to leave an audition for an ad because “he didn’t look the part”. “I used to collect food menus from restaurants and ask the cast and crew what they wanted. I also did odd jobs like printing the scripts and giving it to the actors. On the side, I began auditioning for nonspeaking roles,” he reminisces, adding candidly that everything felt exciting for a “nobody from Jalandhar”.
Varun was in college when the acting bug bit him but his initiation into the profession was far from conventional. “I realized during my student days in Chandigarh that the best way to get close to acting was to join a casting agency. I interned with (casting director) Nandini Shrikent and got to see how actors read for films like Talaash, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Soon, I started auditioning too. I was filled with aspirations and even small gigs exceeded my expectations,” he smiles.
As a result of his early experiences, Varun believes that he is a product of Bollywood’s casting system and fervently vouches for budding actors who are eager to go through the gruelling motions of auditions day after day. “Many aspiring actors, including many of my friends, take auditions lightly but I am a classic example of auditions putting a rank newcomer on a movie poster. Now, my life has moved from auditions to narrations. It’s the most beautiful phase. I was running behind people for a role and now they come to me with scripts,” Varun shares.
After working with Abhishek Dogra in the Sonam Kapoor-starrer comedy Dolly Ki Doli in 2015, Varun recently wrapped up the filmmaker’s next, Fry Day, an Anees Bazmee production in which he features alongside Govinda. He also reveals that he is all set to announce another big project soon but for now he is happier about an upcoming holiday with his extended family to the Maldives that he’s putting together for his mother’s birthday next month.
Before that happens, he’s binge watching Black Mirror and Peeky Blinders as he takes his time considering each project that comes to him in the wake of this recent success. “For now, it’s narrations and lots of script readings, with a resolution that I’ll successfully learn how to play the drums this year,” he signs off.
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