Varun Dhawan
Onkar Kulkarni (BOMBAY TIMES; November 24, 2022)

Varun Dhawan has been busy connecting with his fans across India. The actor has been hopping from one city to another promoting his film Bhediya, which hits the theatres tomorrow. He feels that the film, which promises to be an epic cinematic adventure with enthralling VFX, will thoroughly entertain the audience. The actor worked hard for six months to up his fitness levels to play this shape-shifting role of a wolf, so that the man-to-bhediya transformation looks believable on screen.

Ahead of the film’s release, Varun talks about his first creature comedy, directed by Amar Kaushik, why he loves being a part of films that have comic elements in them and the calm he felt while shooting in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh. Excerpts:

In your career spanning 10 years, you have done an interesting mix of films — commercial potboilers to hatke ones — but in your wildest imagination, did you ever think that you would be a part of a creature comedy?
I didn’t, but I always wanted to. I was obsessed with being a part of such a film. So finally, when I got something like Bhediya, I was extremely thrilled. It’s the kind of film that was never made in the country, and was not offered to anyone. The fact that Amar Kaushik had this vision and wanted to make a film like this meant a lot. When he offered me the project, I was sold on his one-scene narration. The scene was — Bhaskar (Varun’s character) is sleeping. He has done something at night, and the doctor asks him, ‘Kal raat ko kya khaya tha?’ And Bhaskar says, ‘Prakash’. The doctor asks, ‘Kya?’ And he quickly responds saying, ‘Nahi, matlab kal raat ko Prakash ke saath khaana khaya tha.’ I was zapped. I knew that this film is going to be something new and wild and it would offer me an unbelievable character to play.

In an interview with us, Dinesh Vijan said he had immense faith in you. He further added that, ‘The actor you see in Bhediya is Varun 2.0.’ Do you agree with that?
I totally believe in that. It’s a very difficult character to play and I don’t think people realise that, but they will once they see the film. There’s an immense amount of work and effort that’s gone into making this film. I expect people to be blown away by the visual treat that they are in for. Physically, it was so tiring to play this character that I would return to my room beat at the end of the day. There is so much anguish and power needed to do certain scenes that it would exhaust me. I trained a lot for the role. For six months, I did animal flow workout and changed my diet… it was hard, but it became very enjoyable at the end of it. I wanted to crack this character and get it absolutely right because it is something so unbelievable — a man turning into a wolf — how do you convince people? So that was very tricky.

In your previous interviews, you have often said that we can’t let go of our Indian culture, emotions and roots in our films. With this film, you are going a step further, because apparently, the idea of Bhediya emerged from Arunachal Pradesh’s folklore. Do films like these inspire you to delve deeper into stories buried in our Indian culture and traditions?
Honestly, I did not know anything about this story until Amar narrated it to me. Well, that’s the beautiful thing about being an actor, that you don’t have to take up the onus of thinking about stories, and makers can come up with their own vision, and you can make it your own, and that’s your job in a way. I have stopped trying to find something. I am open to hearing the director’s vision and seeing how that excites me. Now, obviously, if something is connected to my traditions and culture, I will connect to it faster because there is the relatability aspect. But as an artiste, I am open to exploring every story that can leave a mark on me. Bhediya is fantastical and supernatural and is also rooted in our folklore; it excites you because it is a ‘what if’ story.

You are somebody who did comedy at the beginning of your career. In fact, you have attempted comedy more than most of your contemporaries. You understand the pulse of the genre. Bhediya blends comedy with horror, how challenging was it?
I love comedy. I love it so much that I make sure every film of mine has comedy. This film has a lot of entertainment for the audience. I am not doing much comedy in it. The situation brings out the humour and makes it more exciting. I play a very different part. Like I said, I have almost two parts in the film — one of a man and the other of a wolf. I had my hands full with that and my main job was to convince people that this transformation happens.

After seven years, you have teamed up with your Dilwale (2015) co-star Kriti Sanon. Back then, she was new to the industry. What do you think of her evolution in the last seven years as an actor?
She has had an amazing journey and has worked really hard. I think she is stepping into the best phase right now. I feel there’s a lot of good work ahead for her. Today, she’s in that position where she’s a star, and there are very few around, and she is one of them.

When you shoot a film like Bhediya, which is shot amidst nature in Arunachal, does it bring a certain sense of calm and give you a different perspective of the world around you?
I enjoyed shooting in Arunachal Pradesh. We shot 95 per cent of the film there amid all the greenery. The forest you see in the movie is real. It is such a big and important part of the film and makes the movie look authentic. When you shoot a film at a location like that, it does bring a certain sense of calm. But post the shooting, when we started promoting the film, all that calm disappeared and chaos took over (laughs). I miss that a lot! We all need to take a break, and hopefully, post Bhediya’s release, I will do that.