Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan says a ‘star’ is a big word for his achievements to be tagged as and he believes that actors like Ayushman Khurana, Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar are some of the new-age stars in making.
“I can remember the conversation with dad, after watching Bareilly Ki Barfi that we loved watching, dad said: ‘yaar this Rajkumar is such a brilliant actor, I feel like making a film with him!’ and I also personally feel that they are doing something right to get that love and appreciation from audience,” Varun said.
He was present here at the ‘Jagran Cinema Summit – Future of Cinema’ on Friday evening. In conversation with film critic Mayank Shekhar in the concluding session he was asked about his opinion on new-age stardom.
“In a year when much-anticipated films are not doing well at the box office, actors like Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkumar Rao, Kriti, Bhumi are making differences. So far, Bhumi has acted in three films — Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Shubh Mangal Savdhan and all of them are hits,” Varun said.
Admitting that he is popular on social media, which he enjoys a lot, the Main Tera Hero actor said: “There is a little hypocrisy there. When I meet people at the public events or put out trailer or videos on social media, I get a response from thousands of people. Are they all going to the theatre? Does the love I get from social media gets translated at the box office?”
“Not all the time. But a real star is who gets that at the theatre and have a steady fan-follower for years, like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan,” he added.