Varun Dhawan - An Actor Fiercely Committed To His Craft

There' more to Varun Dhawan than tihat boyish grin, those grater abs and his filmi lineage, Underneath it all, there's an actor fiercely committed to his craft

- Barry Rodgers

Varun Dhawan is 32 years old, and boyishly handsome in a familiar way – kind of like, if the best-looking guy you went to high school with, took really good care of himself after graduation. His teeth aren’t off-puttingly white; his face is a lot friendlier and smiley in person than it is in, say, the smoldery billboards of him. You can instantly tell how famous he is by the number of people assembled in his hotel room in Mumbai’s Juhu area, setting things up and waiting to spring into action. While we wait in a corner of his bedroom to interview him, Dhawan’s team has turned a mellow lounge space into a war room, prepping him for a few interviews for Kalank, in which he plays Zafar, a character with a “tremendous emotional arc”, that’s received widespread praise. Aside from flaunting his superbly toned, greased body in the film (which looked great), he shows immense intensity that his conflicted character demands.

A make-up artist goes about cleaning her brushes while his stylist lays out clothes for him to try out. He enters imperceptibly, all soft energy. He sits back in his couch and apologises for having kept us waiting. But even when in relaxed mode, he boasts the kind of coiled intensity you’d expect to see in a man waiting for a serve from Roger Federer. In fact, he could possibly be the only Bollywood star we’ve ever met with clenched eyebrows.