Bollywood audiences face paradigm shift?
Actor Varun Dhawan feels audiences these days want realistic storylines, not a flight of fancy.
Varun welcomes the fact that the youth is open to accepting new ideas and that people have become broadminded. PHOTO: FILE
MUMBAI:
Varun Dhawan, who has scored a critically-acclaimed dark and intense performance in Badlapur, feels audiences these days want realistic cinema and ‘not a lot of fantasy’, something that Bollywood movies are known for.
“Right now, I feel the people want some other type of cinema. Some more thrill, something a little bit more realistic, not a lot of fantasy,” said Varun, whose role of a grieving family man seeking to avenge the death of his wife and child in Badlapur was met with appreciation. The Main Tera Hero star feels it’s a great time to be in the industry.
“The time is now, the things we were talking about five years back, saying to ourselves, ‘This should be done in Hindi cinema’, that time has come now. The youth today has started accepting new ideas and people have become broadminded.” Although the 27-year-old actor tries to ‘connect with the youth’ with his work, he doesn’t feel that he is a youth icon. He said, “Whenever I’m promoting a film, I make it a point to go and try to connect with the youth because I think my connection is more with them.”
“I don’t really know if I am a youth icon. I would like to tell the youth to please choose Virat Kohli or Sania Mirza or Saina Nehwal. Please choose these people as youth icons because my youth icons, while growing up, were Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly when they were playing,” he added. “I chose sports stars as my icons because you get to learn so much from sports in terms of determination, comebacks and the general attitude in life,” said Varun, who made his debut with Student of the Year.
When asked what he wants to convey to his young fans, he said, “Just be yourself. Individuality is the main thing. Express yourself, ask a lot of questions. Experience everything once in life, but don’t do anything that you feel would embarrass your parents.” Varun, the son of filmmaker David Dhawan, believes getting a platform to ‘express and explore’ is really important for an artist to perform and grow.
“Only when you get a platform, you can express and explore. I’ve done street plays and that really helped my confidence. There is a small crowd but, even if a few people are watching you, it helps. When we perform as actors, our confidence grows. We make our craft better,” he said. Varun’s next film is ABCD 2, which also stars Shraddha Kapoor, is slated to release on June 26. He is now busy shooting for Rohit Shetty’s directorial Dilwale, which also stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2015.
Varun Dhawan, who has scored a critically-acclaimed dark and intense performance in Badlapur, feels audiences these days want realistic cinema and ‘not a lot of fantasy’, something that Bollywood movies are known for.
“Right now, I feel the people want some other type of cinema. Some more thrill, something a little bit more realistic, not a lot of fantasy,” said Varun, whose role of a grieving family man seeking to avenge the death of his wife and child in Badlapur was met with appreciation. The Main Tera Hero star feels it’s a great time to be in the industry.
“The time is now, the things we were talking about five years back, saying to ourselves, ‘This should be done in Hindi cinema’, that time has come now. The youth today has started accepting new ideas and people have become broadminded.” Although the 27-year-old actor tries to ‘connect with the youth’ with his work, he doesn’t feel that he is a youth icon. He said, “Whenever I’m promoting a film, I make it a point to go and try to connect with the youth because I think my connection is more with them.”
“I don’t really know if I am a youth icon. I would like to tell the youth to please choose Virat Kohli or Sania Mirza or Saina Nehwal. Please choose these people as youth icons because my youth icons, while growing up, were Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly when they were playing,” he added. “I chose sports stars as my icons because you get to learn so much from sports in terms of determination, comebacks and the general attitude in life,” said Varun, who made his debut with Student of the Year.
When asked what he wants to convey to his young fans, he said, “Just be yourself. Individuality is the main thing. Express yourself, ask a lot of questions. Experience everything once in life, but don’t do anything that you feel would embarrass your parents.” Varun, the son of filmmaker David Dhawan, believes getting a platform to ‘express and explore’ is really important for an artist to perform and grow.
“Only when you get a platform, you can express and explore. I’ve done street plays and that really helped my confidence. There is a small crowd but, even if a few people are watching you, it helps. When we perform as actors, our confidence grows. We make our craft better,” he said. Varun’s next film is ABCD 2, which also stars Shraddha Kapoor, is slated to release on June 26. He is now busy shooting for Rohit Shetty’s directorial Dilwale, which also stars Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2015.