Varun Dhawan Recalls a Marketing Tactic He Attempted During Badlapur, Reveals How He Multiplied Social Media Views During a College Visit

Varun Dhawan’s compelling performance in Badlapur continues to be one of his finest. The actor, who recently graced WWP Media’s BREW 2026, shared a piece of trivia from the days of Badlapur, revealing how he attempted a marketing tactic while announcing the film’s release date during a college event in Delhi - especially at a time when social media had not taken off as much as it has now. 

“We visited college, and I had requested everyone to record me while I shared the film’s release date and post it across social media. People weren’t putting it up on their stories back then. So I requested these 3500 college students to do so, and that really translated; it doubled up to 7000 views (considering one view from one student) - so at the minimum, at least 7000 people knew my film’s release date,” shared Varun Dhawan.

Varun also shared a marketing instance from the days of Border 2, revealing ‘Ghar Kab Aaoge’ song gained incredible traction partly because of his viral meme. “My social media numbers during Border 2 were insane. My Instagram would blow up with comments and reshares, and the same wouldn’t happen during other films. Border 2 happens to be a film for which I was trolled the most for the smile meme. Though I even got a couple of ads after that. But the amount of reshares, likes and the kind of conversation that has happened is probably because of trolling or nostalgia. But I like to believe that it also resulted in the film getting a lot of exposure,” he shared. 

“The film’s song ‘Ghar Kab Aaoge’ was doing well, but my meme was attached to that song. So every time my meme went out, people would attach that song to it. This happened for free; the production wasn’t paying for it. They could have removed it because of copyright. But they chose not to remove it. The song had been going viral for a lot of weeks. It was free publicity,” he added.

During the session, Varun Dhawan looked back at how people engage with online content and why stories that feel real continue to be standout despite the load of content available online.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Varun Dhawan is looking forward to the release of his upcoming rom-com Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai. Co-starring Pooja Hegde and Mrunal Thakur, the film is directed by David Dhawan and is slated to release in theatres on June 5.