Reported By:
| Edited By: Upala KBR |Source: DNA |Updated: Feb 14, 2017, 06:00 AM IST
Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt are acting in their third film together. Their on-screen and off-screen chemistry is something else. Many feel that Alia makes a better pair with Varun, than she does with her beau Sidharth Malhotra. They even complete each other’s sentences. They argue, sulk and fight with each other like teenage lovers. The banter they share is proof of the comfort factor they have with each other. As they gear up for the release of their next, Badrinath Ki Dulhania, we quizzed the screen lovers about what Valentine’s Day, love, and wooing means to them.
At the end of the interview, Alia says, “You have put us in a very romantic mood now with all this Valentine’s Day stuff,” as Varun laughs, “And now we will have to attend an event in this mood,” as he heads off to promote their upcoming film.
Alia: Of course, yes! A part of me really related to Vaidehi’s character because she is very passionate and ambitious and at the same time, she is very sensitive. I feel I am like that as well. Also, I feel that a relationship and two partners have to be equals. I don’t feel that one has to be less than the other. Like the way, maybe not exactly the same, but the tone with which Badri approaches her. He’s very gentle towards her and that gentleness is always loved in a guy.
Varun: I would never want to woo a girl like the way Badri woos Vaidehi. When you see the film you will understand why he does it that way. It’s a little old-fashioned. In real life, I would be very normal. When I am in love, I am very romantic but otherwise I can’t fake romance. There are some people who can do it sometimes but for me, it would take me some time to woo someone.
Varun: Yes of course! That’s what love is… You can’t stop believing that this person will stop loving you. You have to believe that one day or the other yeh kabhi na kabhi toh haan bolegi, but it’s very important to give out this message, especially to the youth, in the world we live in, in the India that we live in, that there are ways to woo someone who is not in love with you. You can’t do it through force or aggression, and that is something which comes through very nicely in the film.
Alia: Yes, totally!
Varun: Yes, me too.
Alia: On a film set! Because if the person knows me well enough, will know that’s my first love, so my second love should propose to me on a film set which is my first love! (Laughs)
Varun: Alia is more romantic than me on a daily basis. I know I sound more romantic but I am not. I am not romantic 24/7 as I have major mood swings.
Alia: I am very romantic. Romance for me, is understanding and intimacy. If the person truly loves and understands me, he will know what I want. Now it’s printed (in After Hrs) so the person, whoever he is, will know how I want to be proposed to! (Laughs)
Varun: I don’t know… The term ‘I Love You’ is thrown about extremely loosely. People use the word love for so many things nowadays, so coming into 2017, love is something that needs to be felt.
Alia: (butts in) I meant propose in marriage, not proposing love.
Varun: Marriage, I would propose seriously. I don’t know but I would do something…
Alia: I know you wouldn’t make it cheesy though, at all.
Varun: That’s true.
Alia: No. A guy going down on the knees is part and parcel of a marriage proposal.
Varun: I would like to make it special for the girl. Whatever her wish is, whatever makes her happy, I would do that. It would be about her.
Alia: I think honestly it’s a lot of pressure! (Laughs) It’s that one day... because sometimes you don’t have a man in your life then…
Varun: I love it! I love the holiday… I have two or three good V-Days.
Alia: Over the years, that’s the one thing I have learned — to understand that it’s Valentine’s Day and I am going to make time because in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s difficult to find time.
Varun: When you are in school and college every day you celebrate love, and it doesn’t matter because you are lukkhas…
Alia: But as adults, Valentine’s Day is a special day. A day when you take out that time and say, sorry, I have to go home to celebrate it with my love. Earlier the pressure used to be alag because it was about the gift. Kaun kya mujha dega? Will my boyfriend take me out or not? It was more of a competition kind of thing, but now it’s just spending that valuable time with each other.
Varun: I used to love getting anonymous gifts from girls, and I wouldn’t know who has sent it…
Alia: I used to love getting cards.
Alia: I don’t remember much… I haven’t really got a Valentine’s Day special gift, not like a present…
Varun: I have got a very nice handwritten letter. I will give you (Alia) a T-shirt for Valentine’s Day — Be My Valentine! (Both laugh)
Alia: What I find really twisted and yet very romantic is when a guy really loves you and he says it, but he is also irritated that he loves you. Because for him it’s like I can’t do anything about it since I love you so much! I find that very sweet.
Varun: Simple, small things touch me like if I would love it if the person I was with, would order something for me to eat, she knows what I would like, things which shows she cares, things she knows which I need and she does it without even telling me.
Alia: Just as a general thing — when people jump to conclusions about the person you are — like you aren’t that kind of person, etc.
Varun: Being judged puts me off. As actors, we all go through that. We have such a template of how actors are that sometimes people outside feel we are like that because of our profession. Sometimes people from within your fraternity too think like that.
Alia: People say it’s through his stomach, but I think it’s through kind, nurturing care — just like his mom does, almost that motherly kind of care, looking after so that he can just totally lie back and I can take care of him.
Varun: The way to a woman’s heart is just being honest. I am not a lady’s man in that sense but I think honesty works. Be yourself.
Alia: I think the way Varun is overall as a person and that’s the biggest similarity between him and his character Badri. Even if Varun is doing the simplest of things, he will do it with all his heart. That’s the most endearing and sweetest quality in Varun, which is why when you watch him on screen, he just lights up. Even when he’s having a conversation with you he’s always fun. I have heard people say that Varun is the most entertaining person they have met and he’s that because whenever he’s talking to you, he’s not distracted, he’s not faking it, he’s there. Varun may say stupid things but he will say it with his heart and you wouldn’t mind.
The most annoying thing is that Varun’s excitement levels go through the roof and then I get hyper and I die and we fight… It comes from a pure place, so I wouldn’t ever want him to change that irritating habit of his.
Varun: The most adorable quality about Alia is that she’s outstanding with the people around her — her staff, her people. There are certain ways people behave with their staff and I have seen Alia. She’s so good with them. I haven’t seen another actor who is so good, so loving and cool as her, gives so much love to everyone around her and that says so much about her as a human being. Also, what I find endearing about Alia is that she’s like a pressure absorber. She takes away all my pressure and is one of my most favourite people to make a film with because I am passionate to the point…
Alia: (Butts in) I am one of your favourite people???
Varun: I don’t want to say that because I don’t want people to over think anything but Alia actually is the only one who, I feel, is as driven and passionate as me and ready to go to any length to promote the film. For us, our films are our first love and that is the kind of understanding we have.
We share the same annoying qualities — she’s extremely moody, gets spurts of energy and then calms down. She fires the gun from my shoulders (Alia laughs), if she needs to tell Karan (Johar) anything, she will tell me, ‘Varun this, this and this…’ and when Karan is in the room, she won’t tell him! I will be the only one speaking.
Varun: Am I in love? Yes.
Alia: Yes!
Love is…
Varun: Selfless
Alia: It means different things on different days so today, I will say it is beautiful
Lust is…
Varun: Selfish
Alia: Overrated
One night stands
Varun: Fine if you are okay with it and fun if you want to do it.
Alia: Never had one.
Do you believe in chat mangni pat shaadi?
Alia: Woh kya hai? (We explain)
Varun: Yes. Why wait? When in love you would want to get married immediately.
Alia: Yes.
My perfect Valentine’s Day is…
Alia: Pizza, friends and a cozy couch… And watermelon juice.
Varun: She’s already used two of my most fave things — pizza and watermelon juice but something which I used to do as a kid but don’t get to do anymore is stroll on Juhu beach. I would like to do that.
Alia: Bowling… It’s fun.
Varun: Yes, that too.
When in love — living in or marriage?
Alia: To each his own. I do believe in the institution of marriage, but I am also not against the idea of living in.
Varun: When in love, just be in love (Alia nods her head in approval and says ‘Nice’)… Whether you are married or not, or living in, or away from each other, you are just in love and nothing else matters.
What’s the most perfect gift would you want from your Valentine?
Alia: I think nothing materialistic — just maybe a 100 per cent attention for the rest of my life (both break into laughter).
Varun: Just her… And all to myself.
Alia: Uff! I will never say you are unromantic! That’s so sweet!
