Varun Dhawan reveals how he once got 3500 students to promote his film: ‘Requested everyone to record me’

Varun Dhawan used a unique marketing strategy for Badlapur, asking 3500 college students to promote the film.

Filmmakers and actors have to be creative when promoting their films on social media and making their projects stand out in the labyrinth of information. But much before social media promotions became a big thing, actor Varun Dhawan’s one marketing strategy helped him promote the 2015 film Badlapur, especially among the youth, as he got 3500 college students to promote his film on social media in one go.

Varun Dhawan will next be seen in Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai.

Varun got 3500 students to promote his film

Speaking at WWP Media’s BREW 2026, Varun spoke about his marketing tactic and how he converted his visit to a college event in Delhi into an opportunity to announce the film’s release date in a viral way. He said, “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."

Varun's marketing strategy for Border 2

Similarly, Varun shared how a meme attached to his Border 2 song ‘Ghar Kab Aaoge’ helped boost the song and the film’s publicity. He said, “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."

Varun’s last release, Border 2, was a box office hit. The film also starred Ahan Shetty, Diljit Dosanjh, and Sunny Deol, and collected over ₹450 crore worldwide. On the work front, Varun will next be seen in Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai. The film is directed by his father, filmmaker David Dhawan. David and Varun have previously collaborated on films like Chashme Baddoor, Main Tera Hero, Judwaa 2, and more. Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai is produced by Ramesh Taurani under the banner of Tips Films and co-produced by Gaurav Bose of Maximilian Films. The film also stars Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde in lead roles, with Manish Paul, Chunky Pandey, Jimmy Shergill, and Mouni Roy in supporting roles. It is set to hit theatres on June 5.