Happy Birthday Varun Dhawan from BizAsia

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As 2012 saw a whole host of new faces, this birthday boy was definitely one who stood out from the crowd. He managed to capture his young audiences hearts from across the globe, and despite being the son of an established celebrity, Varun Dhawan made his mark all on his own. BizAsia looks through Dhawan’s best moments in his hit debut film ‘Student of The Year’ (2010), where his journey to success has begun.

Like all typical young heroes, the first of what you see of Dhawan as his character Rohan, is his ever so chiselled, buffed-up bod, which sure enough raised a few eyebrows. Portraying a character who is rich and wants to pursue a musical career, director Karan Johar, sure enough wanted his audiences to see how good his heroes looked, and boy did it score Dhawan a few points. So the young actor looked as good as it can get but, could he act?

And sure enough Dhawan proved this too. His character evoked many different emotions and attitudes. The first of which the audiences see, is Rohan’s rich-brat side, where his first meeting with Siddhart Malhotra’s character Abhimanyu, kicks off to a bad start. Despite being rather shorter than Malhotra, Dhawan manages to effectively portray an authoritative character, who has a very show off air about him. Through a few lines, Dhawan manages to get audiences to understand his characters position within the school, and begin to not like him very much.

We later come to the scene of when Rohan is at home, eating with his family around the dinner table. Whilst his dad, business tycoon Ashok Nanda talks to Rohan’s elder brother about business, all Rohan says is ‘But Dad, I think..” Being stopped by his father who evidently has no value for his younger son begins to mock him. Dhawan’s reaction portrays sadness, anger and compassion all at the same time. As he glances across the table to his mother for reassurance, only to be given a sorrowful look, audiences suddenly feel compassion for Dhawan’s character. Despite being a short scene, Dhawan was able to have an effect with audiences just by his body language and expressions.

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When Abhimanyu takes the punishment that Rohan should have taken, there is a change in the way Rohan sees Abhimanyu. Here, audiences are able to recognise that Dhawan’s character isn’t all that bad. Dhawan manages to change his characters attitude so effectively that, he makes the audiences believe that his character isn’t fake. Here audiences are exposed to a genuine side of Dhawan’s character.

Throughout the film, Rohan is seen having a long term girlfriend, Shanaya played by Alia Bhatt and also having a flirty relationship with school cheerleader hottie Tanya Asrani, played by Sana Saeed. Constantly battling between the two, Dhawan plays his character in a way that audiences can easily recognise that really, his heart belongs to Shanaya. Changing his attitude slightly towards her, and despite being ‘confused’ about his feeling for her, presents more concern towards her, than anyone else.

With all love stories comes the risk of a love triangle, which is exactly what this films plays on. As Rohan catches his best friend Abhimanya and girlfriend Shanaya together, he becomes roaring with rage. During the fighting scene with Malhotra, Dhawan’s expressions again portrays a mixture of emotions. Anger, hurt and somewhat confused. Here audiences see a man, whose been heartbroken by his love and his best friend, and they are able to feel what he is going through.

And last but not least, Dhawan’s dance moves. With only two songs that included major dance numbers, it was obvious Johar wanted to show audiences how this new face has the whole package. In both songs ‘Radha’ and ‘Disco Deewane’, Dhawan has a small skit where he dances solo to fast and upbeat music. Showing he’s more than just a pretty face, Dhawan is defiantly one of the finest dancers on the Bollywood scene.

Dhawan managed to create a real person from his character, where he was able to give off the exact impression that audiences needed to get, in order to carry the film forward. His performance proved that he has a lot more to offer and has the potential of being a great contribution to the Indian Film fraternity.

BizAsia would like to wish Varun Dhawan a very happy birthday, and wish him all the best.