Titas Chowdhury (HINDUSTAN TIMES; March 1, 2020)

Varun Sharma’s debut Hindi film, London Dreams (2009), got him the title, groom on horse. Ask him about it and he breaks into laughter. He says that he always knew that films were his true calling and as luck would have it, he landed on the sets of a film starring Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn soon after his first big audition. He reminisces, “I was studying in a college called ITFT in Chandigarh where I was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in media, entertainment and film technology. Casting and auditions keep happening In Chandigarh for films that are shot in North India. I got to know that there are auditions being held for Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s film and so, I went there.”

Divulging details about his first stint on a film set, he shares, “I cracked the audition and then I was asked to go and meet Vipul sir. I had one scene in London Dreams where a wedding is taking place and I’m the groom sitting atop a horse. It was a crucial scene where Salman (Khan) sir’s and Ajay (Devgn) sir’s characters meet. I appear on the screen for a fraction of a second. It was my screen debut and that was the first time that I went to a film set.”

Sharing screen space with Salman had left him overwhelmed. “I was amazed to see Salman sir for the first time and the entire process of shooting a film. The shoot happened in a small town called Samrala that’s next to Ludhiana. I’ve memories of the whole day etched in my mind,” he says.

Varun shares that he first met the superstar as a child. “I had met Salman sir for the first time when I was a kid. He had come to my home town (Jalandhar, Punjab) for a promotional event. I had clicked a photograph with him then and when I met him again on the sets of London Dreams, I took it to him and he signed an autograph behind it,” he signs off.