Filmmaker Karan Johar on Friday came out in support of actor Varun Dhawan amid online trolling against the latter for his performance in Border 2. Johar took to Instagram Story to criticise the social media backlash and praise the film’s theatrical reception.
Johar, who launched Dhawan with Student of the Year, shared a post lauding Border 2 and followed it up with a separate post directly addressing trolls who have been targeting the actor, particularly over his smile in the film’s trailer.
“Has to be said...the reason why it's called a virtual world! Real will always score and prove the noise on social media as defunct! You can troll an artist for his smile, but then he laughs when the film releases to packed houses and he receives pure, authentic audience love! So noisemakers and clickbait-seeking content creators can do what they like...truth will always prevail,” Johar wrote.
Dhawan has been facing sustained trolling since the Border 2 trailer dropped, with clips and comments mocking his expressions going viral online. The film released in theatres on Friday.
The actor had earlier addressed the trolling ahead of the release while speaking to the media at the ‘Braves of the Soil’ tribute trailer launch for Border 2. Dhawan said he does not allow social media commentary to influence him and prefers to focus on his work and audience response.
“I believe that you shut down the noise and just let your work do the talking. Yeh sab cheezein chalti rehti hain. It doesn't really matter. Main iske liye kaam nahin karta hoon. Main jis cheez ke liye kaam karta hoon woh iss Friday ko pata chalega,” Varun said.
Border 2 is directed by Anurag Singh and produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, JP Dutta and Nidhi Dutta under the banners of T-Series Films and JP Films.
Sunny Deol returns as the central protagonist in the sequel, leading an ensemble cast that includes co-leads Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Ahan Shetty. The film also features Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Anya Singh and Medha Rana in pivotal roles.