Varun Dhawan was in his element as he attended the press conference of the 69th Filmfare Awards 2024 in Mumbai on January 15 along with Karan Johar and Janhvi Kapoor. Varun began his speech by talking about his first-ever visit to a Filmfare award ceremony.
69th Filmfare Awards 2024 press conference: Varun Dhawan talks about being intimidated by Salman Khan during his first-ever performance; hints at Narendra Modi as he says “Everyone’s boss is from Gujarat”
Varun said, “I came on Aprita Khan Sharma’s ticket as Salman bhai (Salman Khan) was performing. It was a last-minute decision.”
He talked highly of Karan Johar as he remarked, “When you think of hosting a Filmfare award, you have had Mr Shah Rukh Khan and Mr Saif Ali Khan who have done a wonderful job and the same applies to Karan Johar. In the last couple of years, he hadn’t hosted. So, it’ll be great to see him back on the stage in Gujarat. Some censorship rules will be placed!”
He continued, “Karan is a great host and a great dost. If he doesn’t like you, he’ll be a great ghost as well, as in, he’ll ghost you! I think, just seeing him on stage will make this edition the most entertaining Filmfare award in a decade.”
Varun Dhawan then began talking about performing for the first time, in 2013, a few months after his debut film Student Of The Year (2012) was released. Directed by Karan Johar, it also launched the acting careers of Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra. Interestingly, it was Ayushmann Khurrana who won the award that year for Vicky Donor (2012).
On this KJo quipped, “That year, all three – Varun, Sid and Alia – who debuted. And none of them won the debut award (laughs)!” Varun added, “Ayushmann won and he deserved it. I was just excited as I got to perform that year.”
Varun Dhawan then said of a goof-up that happened during his performance and how he was intimated to perform in front of Salman Khan, “There was a glitch. I went on stage. The lights were switched on and the music stopped mid-way. And bang in front of me, I saw Mr Salman Khan just watching me like this (mimics Salman). I got so scared. Music bandh ho gaya. Main naachu ya kya karoon? I started sweating. I went backstage and I asked Jitesh (Jitesh Pillai, editor of Filmfare), ‘Yeh kya ho raha hai?’. He told me, ‘Don’t worry. People will understand. We’ll edit this part. You start again’.”
Varun continued, “During the whole performance, Bhai made eye contact with me. I had to just look into his eyes and dance which was not easy. I was trying to smile and even if he was happy, he wouldn’t smile! I didn’t know whether or not he liked my performance. But I think he did like it.”
Varun Dhawan even later on raised laughs, “This time, I believe the capacity is 10,000 people? Ya usse bhi zyada? Black ho jaayegi tickets?” He also said, “We want it to be a full house show. Matlab Gandhinagar mein ekdum jalsa ka mahaul ho. I genuinely love Gujarat so much so that I married a Gujarati. My Bhabhi is also Gujarati.”
Also Read: Salman Khan to shoot his cameo in Sunny Deol starrer Safar this week: Report
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