Varun Dhawan wasn’t ‘emotionally and mentally’ prepared for Kalank, credits Alia Bhatt for helping ‘up his game’

Praising her talent and craft, Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan has credited his Kalank co-star Alia Bhatt for helping him ‘up his game’. In a recent interview, Varun revealed that he was not emotionally prepared for the multi-starrer, that hit theatres on April 17, though he claims he was physically ready for the challenge.

Directed by Abhishek Varman of 2 States fame, Kalank also stars Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Aditya Roy Kapur and Kunal Kemmu. The film is produced by Karan Johar.

Speaking to Mid Day, Varun said, “While I was ready for the shoot physically, I wasn’t prepared emotionally and mentally. Abhishek didn’t want to do too many readings and rehearsals, but I was just consumed by the film when I came on the set of Hira Mandi (a locality shown in the film).”

He also talked about the hardships he faced while prepping for the role of Zafar, “Physically, this has been the toughest character of my career. Although I didn’t have to look like a body-builder, I was breaking my body day and night to get it right. I dislocated my shoulder and had a tear in the hamstring during the bullfight scene. Abhishek told me to ignore the body and emote with my eyes. I sat with him for two hours to discuss Zafar’s childhood and to know where he comes from.”

Asked about his onscreen chemistry with Alia, Varun told the tabloid, “Our careers have been a play of destiny. Alia was not part of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014) initially. In fact, Kalank was planned before Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), but we couldn’t lock the rest of the cast. Things have never been in our control, but this helped us develop an organic relationship. There’s some magic (in our on-screen chemistry), that’s why filmmakers cast us together. In all our collaborations, our focus has been to outdo the previous performance, which is a lot of hard work. We try to change the (flavour) of the chemistry and since Alia knows her craft well, as a co-actor, it helps me up my game,” he added.

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