Have I told you that Varun is secret twins with my friend Dina? Born on the exact same day. Clearly, she was kidnapped and taken from her true home with the Dhawan film family and mysteriously whisked away from her true heritage. Or, at the very least, it is a convenient coincidence which means I never forget either of their birthdays.
1.1. I love you because you grew up on filmsets, with casual memories of everyone from Salman to Madhuri playing with you as a kid.
2. I love you because you trained yourself for stardom, by combining study with Barry John in Delhi, and working for Karan at Dharma. Balancing acting training with general film knowledge.
3. I love you because back when Student of the Year came out, I recommended it to people because it starred “an okay guy, a cute little girl you just want to hug, and a really really really smoking hot guy.” Which just proved, once again, that I have no ability to spot an up and coming star.
4. I love you because, even when I thought you were just “an okay guy”, I had to admit you could really really dance!
5. I love you because your dancing still stood out, even when the song was supposed to be about someone else.
6. I love you because your second movie was all about you, and you definitely proved you had what it took to make that work, especially in the dancing area.
7. I love you because your second movie was also a family production. Showing that you had the good judgement to let your father take command of your career, and the generosity to use your newborn fame to benefit the family.
8. I love you because you did a great job in that movie! Successfully carrying the majority of the plot on your charm alone.
9. I love you because after one film for the family, you went back to make another for your mentor, and it was your real break-out performance.
10. I love you because you are SUCH A GOOD DANCER!!! So good, that the next 6 reasons are all going to be songs.
11. Another song! This one a little comic, and graceful at the same time.
12. And this one, the random catchy club number that became a big hit.
13. Even when you are in the middle of giving your greatest performance, and opposite someone who really isn’t the greatest dancer, you still throw in some great moves.
14. I always like wedding songs better than club songs.
15. Although I like Badshah songs almost as much as wedding songs.
16. I love you because after putting in a decent performance in a light multi-starrer, and an entertaining performance in a farce, you really stretched your abilities and managed a deep sincere layered performance in Humpty Sharma, a deep sincere layered rom-com.
17. I love you because you followed up Humpty Sharma with something shockingly different in Badlapur.
18. I love you because if the Humpty Sharma performance made people go “hey, this kid could go places!”, the Badlapur performance made people go “Okay, this kid is definitely going places!
19. I love you because Badlapur was one of 3 movies in 2015, with is a shockingly large number of films for a bigger name actor to come out with in one year these days.
20. I love you because each of those movies in 2015 was carefully calculated to show a different kind of talent, acting in Badlapur, dancing in ABCD2, and comedy in Dilwale.
21. I love you because you were also smart enough to know you would benefit from sharing the screen at this point in your career, with Nawazuddin in Badlapur, Prabhudeva in ABCD2, and Shahrukh in Dilwale.
22. I love you because, that dancing in ABCD2 is phenomenal!
23. Really really phenomenal
24. I love you because even more impressive is the song that didn’t appear, you let one of your solos from Dilwale go for the good of the movie.
25. Although the remaining solo is pretty great.
26. And I can’t forget your follow up movie either, Dishoom in 2016, that proved you had a sense of humor and still had a willingness to do two hero films if it would help your career. And provide the dancing skills to balance a pretty face hero.
27. And that you could also do a “manly stride” and wear a suit and all of that grown-up stuff.
28. I love you because you took all that experience, in manliness and darkness, and brought it to a richer deeper variation on your same hero from Humpty Sharma, in the franchise continuation, Badrinath.
29. I love you because you are continuing to have a varied resume, following up the darker rom-com Badrinath with the completely light double role in Judwaa 2.
30. I love you because your latest film October was the biggest risk of them all.
31. And finally, I love you because through out this whole journey to stardom, you have been very careful about your personal life, slowly making the public aware of your long term serious girlfriend only once you were famous enough to be able to control the narrative and protect her privacy a little.
Bonus:
dontcallitbollywood 
He always seems to forget to shave in the morning . . .
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Or else only films late at night.
On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 7:49 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I feel so proud of my judgement for spotting Varun as the next big thing in SOTY. Sure Siddharth gets the girl. But the script supports Varun and the audience’s sympathies are firmly with him.
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And you should be proud! I totally guessed wrong there. I was sure that Sidharth was going to be the next big thing because he was so tall and pretty. I had a friend who said Varun was more talented and going to be the bigger star, and I called her a fool. Turns out, I was the fool!
On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 10:41 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Happy Birthday Varun!! SOTY was one of the rare times I actually spotted the talent, like I couldn’t even understand why Varun’s love story wasn’t better fleshed out. Also, I felt he should’ve gotten the girl. Sid, who I later liked a lot in HTP (and not in much else), I found to be stiff many times which is fine, being his first movie and all. (I was completely wrong about Alia lol) But Varun now he had my heart LOL. I have rooted for him ever since. Loved him as Humpty & Badri the most. He is that rare case of art meets commerce, Hope he actually gets to do all kinds of movies, make mistakes and learn and grow. You go boy!!
I once heard Varun speak about his 5 fav movies, it was a MAMI stage managed by Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra.. his depth and thoughtfulness bowled me over.
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With the value of hindsight, I can see that even without getting the girl, Varun had the better role in SOTY. Or at least equally good and played it a little better, he had all those complicated scenes with his father and stuff. Sid didn’t have anything that felt nearly as memorable.
On Tue, Apr 24, 2018 at 1:18 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, true and he was the SOTY too, even though by forfeit. Sid did have a complex back story but his scenes weren’t as effective I guess?
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I love that MAMI interview with Anupama and Rajeev too! You can tell Varun is really passionate about cinema.
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I must be the only who can’t staaaand Varun hes so irritating I feel the same way about him as u feel with Randeep Hooda lol.
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Well, it was his birthday, maybe we were all just being nice. And now it is his birthday any more, so you can be mean.
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When I saw Student of the Year, I was thinking just like you, someone very hot, another Barbie girl, someone appeared in the film a lot,But after Humpty Sharma I said this boy is very good, why I did not like him in student of the year,After Badlapur I said: This boy came to Rule and i love him
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