Mumbai: Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan feels appreciation he receives from audience amounts more than earning money and fame through films.
Before making his acting debut in 'Student of the Year', Varun had worked as assistant director for Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'My Name is Khan', and will be seen next in 'Main Tera Hero', directed by his father David Dhawan.
"Entertaining the audience is important to me. Money and fame don't feature in my list. I love to perform. I have seen my father getting fame, money.. Even for him audience is more important than getting all these things. For me also audience appreciation is important," Varun told PTI in an interview here. Varun said he did not view anybody as his competitor in Bollywood.
"I am not here to prove myself to any individual in the film industry. For me audience is important and their love and acceptance is essential. I will continue to entertain audience with different kind of films. I don't want to bore them by doing one kind of cinema," he said.
The projects with Varun at present are upcoming masala comedy 'Main Tera Hero', a thriller from Sriram Raghavan, 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dhulania' which is a rom-com, and a sequel to 'Any Body Can Dance'.
When asked what sort of changes did he witness in the two-year gap after the release of 'Student of the Year', Varun said, "The biggest change came after the trailer of 'Main Tera Hero' was released. Another effect of this masala comedy is a lot of people including shopkeepers and kids coming to know me....My first film 'Student of the Year' was meant for certain kind of an audience, but this film ('Main Tera Hero') is for all".
"Girls have started screaming and running behind me but that is to do more with the film than me. The day my films stop getting good response, all this will cease to exist. Even people from the industry called and praised me but I don't want to take any names. I am glad people are liking the music and songs," Varun, 26, said.
When asked if doing 'Main Tera Hero' with his director father was pre-planned, Varun replied in negative. "It was not a deliberate decision it just happened. This film was going to be my third film and 'Humpty Sharma Ki Dhulania' was going to be my second film," he added. Varun said he agreed to do his father's film for emotional and not commercial reasons.
"I did this film for emotional reason than commercial. This is my dad's 43rd film and my second film. To work with an established director like him in the early stage of my career is a blessing," Varun said. The actor insisted that his father was more like a director than a father on film sets.
"He was more like a director. There was no such father-son relation sort of a thing. It was difficult to work with him as he is a taskmaster," he added. Varun finds both his heroines from the film -- Illena D'Cruz and Nargis Fakhri--beautiful and had a great fun working with them.
On his next film with Sriram Raghavan, Varun said, "Actors usually don't take up thriller films (of Sriram Raghavan) early in their career but I did as I loved the idea. Unfortunately, I cannot talk about the film. All I can say is it's a complete transformation from the films that I have done".
For 'Anybody Can Dance' sequel, Varun will be sharing the screen space with trained dancers and ace choreographer-director Prabhu Deva. The actor said he was not thinking of the pressure he will have to endure while working in the sequel at this moment.
