Varun Dhawan turns a year older today, but perhaps the more interesting question is not where he stands at the moment. From here he goes here. Because Varun is now at an interesting stage of his career. He is no longer the young, energetic star kid trying to prove that he belongs. He’s not yet at that remote, hyper-curated stage where a star starts to look more like an idea than an artist. He is somewhere in between: experienced, tested, loved, trolled, successful, wounded, hungry and still able to surprise the audience.
Before Bollywood forgets about creating entertainers, Varun Dhawan should weaponize his David Dhawan DNA
And that’s why this birthday is a good time to say something that perhaps needs to be said more openly. Varun Dhawan should not run away from his David Dhawan DNA. He should weaponize it.
Over the years, being David Dhawan’s son has been seen as both a privilege and a burden for Varun. The privilege is clear. He comes from a film family. He grew up around cinema. He understands sets, songs, comedy, rhythm, timing and the madness of mainstream Hindi filmmaking in a way that cannot be taught in a workshop. But the burden is equally real. Whenever Varun takes up comedy, colour, songs, dance or mass entertainment, there is a tendency to put it down to genetics, as if he is simply doing what comes naturally because of his surname.
But perhaps that is exactly the point. Perhaps what comes naturally to Varun is what Bollywood is struggling to create today.
David Dhawan’s cinema was never built on silence, stillness or a carefully guarded aura. It was built on chaos, speed, music, confusion, humor, family appeal, and a deep understanding of what general audiences want from a Friday night at the movies. His films did not ask the audience to admire them from a distance. He drove the audience into madness. He made people laugh, whistle, hum songs, repeat dialogues and forget his problems for two and a half hours. This is no small cinematic achievement. That is a language.
And Varun Dhawan is one of the few current mainstream actors who can speak that language without looking like a tourist.
This is its real advantage. Varun can dance without hesitation. He can do comedy without being embarrassed by it. He can play to the gallery without appearing condescending. He can romance, cry, fight, overreact, play low and surrender to the demands of a full-fledged Hindi film entertainer. In an era where many stars are busy saving their image, Varun still performs like someone who wants to win over the last row of the balcony. That instinct is rare. More importantly, it is useful.
The problem is that Bollywood, in its constant effort to look cool and big, has often come to doubt its own strengths. Songs are treated like marketing units. Comedy is considered a risky field. Family entertainers are dismissed as old-fashioned until one of them works. Stars are encouraged to be intense, silent, contemplative, mysterious and premium. But Hindi cinema was never built on aura alone. It was built on accessibility. It was built on stars who could enter homes, weddings, television screens, music playlists, and family conversations.
This is the area that Varun can own.
This doesn’t mean they should recreate the 90s. He must be lazy. This also does not mean that they should blindly repeat David Dhawan-Govinda grammar. That world was of its own time, its own audience and its own rhythm. But what Varun can do is take the emotional engine of that cinema and repurpose it for today. Confusion comedy can be more sharp. Romance may become more contemporary. Songs can become big digital moments. Family drama may become more serious. The hero can be funny without being stupid, vulnerable without being weak, and heavy without being old.
This is where the term weaponization becomes important. Heritage should not be treated merely as nostalgia. This should be taken as a strategy. That’s why the next step matters.
with If you are young then you have to fall in loveThe David Dhawan-Varun Dhawan combination is more than just business curiosity. It has emotion. The fact that Varun reportedly spent two nights in the studio recreating the title track also says something about his involvement and hunger. This is not just a son doing another film with his father. This is perhaps a moment when one generation of Hindi film entertainment hands over the reins to another.
And that stick should not be carried while apologizing.
The challenge for Varun now is not to prove that he can be different from David Dhawan’s cinema. He has already done that. The big challenge is to prove that he can modernize what David Dhawan represented. Colour, madness, music, comedy, family charm, dramatic energy and these are not old devices. They are underutilized tools. In the right hands, they can still create magic.
The industry also needs this version of Varun. And Varun, when aligned with the right ingredients, could be one of the strongest faces in that space. This is where his David Dhawan DNA becomes his limit, not his limitation. He inherited not just the nickname but the sense of rhythm. A belief that cinema should move forward. A belief that the audience should not be bored. There is a belief that songs matter, laughter matters, mothers and fathers in the audience matter, children matter, frontbenchers matter and repeat value matters. In today’s Bollywood, that belief system is no longer old-fashioned. It’s almost rebellious.
So yes, Varun Dhawan should experiment. They should take action. He should do intense roles. He should surprise people. He should work with new directors, new writers and new formats. But she should never be made to feel that embracing her inner entertainer is a step backward. For him, this may actually be the smartest way to move forward.
Because David Dhawan’s son does not want to become a copy of his father’s cinema. It can become its upgraded version. Faster, younger, smarter, more emotional, more self-aware and more in tune with today’s audience.
This is the opportunity in front of him. Dhawan Not to run away from DNA, but to weaponize it.
And if he does that well, Varun Dhawan just can’t protect his stardom. He may finally remind Bollywood of a style, a grammar and a kind of hero that it has foolishly underestimated for so long.
