Varun Sharma, who became a comic craze as Chucha in his debut Fukrey (2013), is now enjoying a new moniker, Sexa, thanks to Nitesh Tiwari’s latest, Chhichhore, a film that has managed to collect over Rs 42.75 crore in four days.
The Telegraph caught up with Varun for a chat...
From Chucha in Fukrey to Sexa in Chhichhore. How’s the journey been?
It feels magical and unreal, it’s so beautiful. Chucha will always be the closest to my heart because I debuted with that character. It set a benchmark and got the love and appreciation.... But now Sexa is on those lines... where people have started calling me Sexa. It feels so beautiful when an actor is called by their character’s name. I’m very thankful to Nitesh sir, Piyush (Gupta) sir and Nikhil (Mehrotra)... the entire team that has written Chhichhore.
Chhichhore has an ensemble cast. How were your co-actors?
Sushant and I knew each other since a long time. Shraddha and Tahir too, I know them for long. I met Naveen, Tushar and Saharsh for the first time during readings but we instantly connected. The friendship that we have in real life translated on screen which is why people felt like it was an entire ‘group’ and not just actors working with each other. I think the bond and friendship in real life does truly get translated into reel and that comes out.
Tell us some funny anecdote from the set.
It was an absolute amazing experience working on this set. First, it’s a film about friends and when you have seven chhichhoras on an IIT campus in Bombay and they’re going back and reliving college life, it obviously has to be mad fun! On my birthday, we were all celebrating and I cut the cake. I got birthday bumps and it was actually a party.
How is Nitesh Tiwari as a director?
Nitesh sir is magical... I think he’s phenomenal as a director and there is so much to learn from him. On top of that, I’ve become a bigger fan of him as a human.
Sexa had the best one-liners! Did you improvise lines?
I think what you see for all the characters, most of it was already written. It was a bound script. Wherever there was scope of improvising and wherever Nitesh sir felt that it was looking good in a particular scene, he told us we can improvise.
What are you working on next?
I’m right now shooting for Roohi Afza, produced by Dinesh Vijan and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba. We are almost in the last leg of finishing this film, that’s slated to release early next year.
How is it working with Rajkummar (Rao) and Janhvi (Kapoor) in Roohi Afza?
An absolute delight. This is my second film with Raj after Dolly Ki Doli and he is a phenomenal actor as we all know. It was a lot of fun shooting and improvising with him on set. Janhvi is a very dedicated actor... towards her work, her craft, her method and top of that she is a super fun person and we three have bonded really well.
Do you ever fear of getting typecast as a comedy actor?
I don’t... I think for any actor to get cast on a regular basis and with good banners and good scripts is a very big task in itself, type-casting comes in much later. I enjoy making people smile, laugh and I love it when they have a smile on their faces when they look at me. I do want to try out different things and hopefully in the coming times, you will see me in a different light. But I am not scared of it and I love doing comedy.
So you do want to attempt different shades of roles?
Absolutely! I am an actor and doing different kind of films is what we all crave for.