2012–2014: Early work and success '' in 2012 Dhawan made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar's teen film
Student of the Year alongside
Sidharth Malhotra and
Alia Bhatt.
Student of the Year was a commercial success, grossing worldwide. Dhawan next starred in the romantic comedy
Main Tera Hero (2014), a remake of the
Telugu film
Kandireega, which was produced by
Balaji Motion Pictures and directed by his father David. He played an impetuous brat who is involved in a love triangle. Raedita Tandon of
Filmfare commended Dhawan on his comic timing and compared him favourably to
Govinda and
Prabhudheva. The film emerged as a commercial success grossing 780 million Indian rupees worldwide. Dhawan then played Rakesh, a flirtatious Punjabi boy who engages in a romantic affair with an engaged Punjabi woman, in
Shashank Khaitan's romantic comedy
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania. Co-starring Bhatt, the film was described as a tribute to (1995) by Johar, who served as producer. Rohit Khilnani of
India Today praised his screen presence, and Nandini Ramnath of
Mint noted how much he stood out in the "few quieter scenes" of the film.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania emerged as one of top-grossing Indian productions of the year, earning worldwide. Portraying Raghu was a "terrifying" experience for Dhawan, who "slipped into depression as after a point it no longer felt like I was acting in a film". Raja Sen of
Rediff.com praised his acting range, writing that he "sheds his easy-breezy charm but, crucially, not his slightly hapless natural likeability and bubbles up volcanically, his eyes frequently doing the talking." He received a
Filmfare Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance. at a promotional event for
ABCD 2 in 2015 Dhawan next starred opposite
Shraddha Kapoor in the dance film
ABCD 2, in which he portrayed the real-life character of
Kings United founder Suresh Mukund, a dancer from Mumbai who went on to win the 2012
World Hip Hop Dance Championship. Critic Shilpa Jamkhandikar of
Reuters criticised the feature, finding Dhawan to be the only asset of the film, writing that "except for the honest note he strikes, the rest of the film could have been just a bunch of music videos".
ABCD 2 earned worldwide; Dhawan's final appearance that year was in
Rohit Shetty's ensemble action drama
Dilwale, co-starring
Shah Rukh Khan,
Kajol and
Kriti Sanon, in which he played the younger sibling of Khan's character. Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film proved to be a commercial success, grossing over worldwide, emerging as Dhawan's highest-grossing release and one of the
highest-grossing Bollywood films. He next appeared in the action cop comedy
Dishoom (2016), directed by Rohit, alongside
John Abraham and
Jacqueline Fernandez, as a rookie Indo-Emirati cop. Despite mixed reviews, the film proved to be successful at the box office grossing over worldwide. Dhawan reunited with Khaitan and Bhatt for the romantic comedy
Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017), in which he played the titular character, a chauvinist fiancé to Bhatt's character. Shubhra Gupta of
The Indian Express wrote that Dhawan "impresses as a boy-struggling-to-be-a-man". In addition, Tushar Joshi of
Daily News and Analysis noted that "Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt prove that on screen chemistry can be enough sometimes to keep you engaged in an average plot with a predictable narrative". He received his second Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the film. Later in 2017, he starred in his father's
Judwaa 2, a reboot of his 1997
Salman Khan starrer
Judwaa, alongside Fernandez and
Taapsee Pannu. Both
Badrinath Ki Dulhania and
Judwaa 2 proved to be commercial successes, earning over each.
Forbes published that with nine consecutive box office hits and a 100% success ratio, Dhawan had established himself as a "bona fide Bollywood superstar". Dhawan had two releases in 2018,
Shoojit Sircar's drama
October and
Sharat Katariya's social problem film
Sui Dhaaga.
October, written by Sircar's frequent collaborator
Juhi Chaturvedi, saw him portray Danish Walia, an aimless hotel management trainee whose life undergoes a series of changes when his co-worker goes into a coma. In a highly positive review,
Anna M. M. Vetticad of
Firstpost commended Dhawan for "effac[ing] his starry swagger and trademark cutesiness to play Dan"; Rohit Vats of
Hindustan Times considered it to be his finest performance to date and wrote that "his humour is innate, but his understanding of pain and how it affects the human behaviour is even better".
Sui Dhaaga featured Dhawan and
Anushka Sharma respectively as Mauji and Mamta, a newly-wed couple in rural India who begin their own small-scale clothing business. Udita Jhunjunwala of
Mint reviewed, "Dhawan has perfected the template for playing a simpleton. He brings a similar naiveté to Mauji, albeit endearingly." For
October, he received a nomination for the
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor.
2019–present: Commercial fluctuations promoting
Kalank in 2019 Dhawan's sole screen appearance in 2019 was in
Abhishek Varman's ensemble period drama
Kalank, in which he was once again paired opposite Bhatt. Set in the 1940s prior to the
partition of India, the film featured him as a womanising blacksmith; for the physical demands of the part, he trained extensively despite suffering from a knee injury and hamstring tear, and insisted on performing his own stunts. Saibal Chatterjee of
NDTV was appreciative of Dhawan's against-type performance in it. Dhawan began the new decade with the dance film
Street Dancer 3D (2020), which
Namrata Joshi of
The Hindu termed a "compilation of indistinguishable performances". Both
Kalank and
Street Dancer 3D did not perform well commercially. He worked with his father for a third time in
Coolie No. 1, a 2020 adaptation of the Govinda-starrer
1995 film of the same name, which owing to the
COVID-19 pandemic released online on
Amazon Prime Video. Critical and public reception to the film was negative, largely in light of the nepotism debate due to
actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death. In a scathing review, Shubhra Gupta of
The Indian Express called the film a "zero wit, no flair" disaster, noting that Dhawan had "channelled
Govinda in many of his films much better". In 2022, Dhawan starred alongside
Kiara Advani in
Jugjugg Jeeyo, a comedy-drama about divorce. Writing for
Hindustan Times, Monika Rawal Kukreja commended him for "add[ing] life to a complex character". It earned worldwide to emerge as one of the highest-grossing films of the year. Dhawan played the title role in
Bhediya, the third instalment in the
Maddock Horror Comedy Universe. The film was shot over a span of two months in various locations of
Arunachal Pradesh. Sonal Dedhia of
News18 wrote that he "is in full form and is a delight to watch as an egoistic prick-turned-reluctant-werewolf". Dhawan starred opposite
Janhvi Kapoor in
Nitesh Tiwari's
Bawaal (2023), a romantic drama about a feuding couple who learn about
World War II as they travel across Europe. It was released digitally on Amazon Prime Video. The film received backlash for
Holocaust trivialization. In a scathing review, Santanu Das of
Hindustan Times criticised the lack of chemistry between the lead pair and dismissed Dhawan as "particularly exasperating to witness". Dhawan's first release of 2024 came with
Citadel: Honey Bunny, the Indian spinoff of the American spy thriller series
Citadel, created and directed by
Raj & DK, once again for Amazon Prime Video. Playing a stuntman, it marked his first full-fledged action role. Writing for Rediff.com, Mayur Sanap found his performance "sincere" but "unconvincing", preferring that of his co-star
Samantha Ruth Prabhu. In another action role, he led the film
Baby John, produced by
Atlee, which served as a remake of Atlee's own Tamil film
Theri (2016). Shubhra Gupta deemed him "all wrong for this kind of film — cameras can help him do the slo-mo swagger thing, but his delivery is fit only for low-fi comedies". It emerged as a box-office bomb. In 2025, Dhawan reunited with Khaitan and Janhvi Kapoor for the romantic comedy
Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari. India Today's Tushar Joshi was appreciative of Dhawan's performance and comic timing in a role in which he "appears his most at ease in years". It underperformed commercially. The following year, Dhawan portrayed Major
Hoshiar Singh Dahiya among an ensemble led by
Sunny Deol in
Border 2 (2026), an action film set amidst the
India–Pakistan war of 1971. During the filming of the
Battle of Basantar sequence, he shot alongside real soldiers and sustained a tailbone injury. In a mixed review for
Mid-Day, Athulya Nambiar noted that despite pre-release reservations about Dhawan's casting in a more mature role, he ultimately "lets his performance do the talking," by "bringing a quiet strength and composure to the role without slipping into caricature or unintended humour".
Border 2 earned over to rank as the
year's highest-grossing Indian film as well as the highest-grossing of Dhawan's career. == Personal life and other work ==