VIVA VARUN

Varun Dhawan on balancing fatherhood and film shoots, and the pressure of making the right choices.

- LANKUR PATHAK

VARUN DHAWAN IS moving out. After spending most part of his life at his family home in Juhu, the actor is finally buying a new apartment—his first. “It’s overwhelming,” he says, pondering over his decision, as if the reality of leaving home to make his own is yet to fully sink in.

As we drive from Mehboob Studios in Bandra to his Juhu home, the Mumbai air carries a faint chill. Varun gazes out at the city, a fleeting blur of lights and shadows. “I think I’ve had too much of a sheltered, protected life with mom, dad and my brother always, always around. Maybe it’s time to sort of set my own thing up but still have them in close proximity.”

For him, it has been a year of drastic transformation. His streaming debut, the Raj & DK series Citadel: Honey Bunny has been earning accolades for having some terrific, wellcrafted action sequences while his cameo in Stree 2—a film that broke nearly every conceivable record—got some of the loudest cheers, indicating that the universe is set to expand the werewolf storyline. His next, Baby John, looks like a slick actioner, tapping into the action star in him while his father’s directorial, Hai Jawani to Ishq Hona Hai, will take him back to his comedic element.

But perhaps the biggest transformation came on 3 June this year when the actor and his wife, Natasha, had a baby girl, Lara. “It changes you overnight,” Varun says of experiencing fatherhood. “There’s this strong protective instinct that has taken over me. And Natasha—I mean, she’s my superhero.” What struck him most when he saw his wife and daughter together were the times he was rude to his own mother.