Authenticity key for celebrity brand relationships to work: Varun Dhawan

Mumbai: At BREW 2026 organised by WPP there was a fireside chat ‘Built for the big screen, wired for the masses’ featuring Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan

He noted that authenticity is key for celebrities who do brand endorsements to work. The quality of the writing, storytelling is also very important. He noted that when he was young he would see a star pushing a facewash and he would think that there is no way the star was using that product.

“The lifestyle has to match. Sanjay Dutt now is endorsing an alcohol brand. Now that’s a great fit. The fit has to be authentic and if it’s authentic then you believe it. Absolutely it just comes at you.”

He mentioned that Shah Rukh Khan is a great marketer. “Everyone praises his work ethic and for years and years the way he is connected with brands across the spectrum and the idea is that he is being relevant at every stage. At no point have you felt that oh now he’s irrelevant to sell this. He’s been relevant at every stage of whatever he’s endorsing in that sense. I do also like the Salman Khan Rupay ads. I’ve been really getting a kick.

“I think those were very, very well written. I think even Aamir Khan in terms of marketing does amazing stuff. But he does not do it 100% of the time. He takes a break then he comes back, He takes a break and then he comes back. I’m sure he’s coming up with a lot of stuff. I actually recently did a Havells ad which was really good. Bano Acchhe Fan. It was a take on trolls and their relationship with stars. That was also very smartly written”

He said that when you are marketing something which is a really amazing product, you know this product works, then all you have to do is just push the product, keep pushing it and somewhere the authenticity of the product will catch on. “But when you are marketing something which is not a good product and you still have to make it work, you have to still hit all those markers that’s when true marketing genius comes up, according to me.

“And there are such big brands. There’s Maruti, there’s Parle. I’m speaking about the ones that I’m associated with right now. We can’t say that we’ve never had a product which has been substandard. I mean, we will always say that everything is par excellence. But when you have something which is slightly average, how do you make it hit? How do you hit it out of the park even then? How do you hit the number even then? So, I feel true marketing genius is the people who make that happen and that should be recognised.

“I think a lot of people would agree to it. I think when they are working on campaigns deep down, they would know that, are we doing the right job? I think we all work around with that.”

When asked about examples he did with movie marketing he noted that when he was doing ‘Badlapur’ the team visited a college. Obviously everyone had phones. “I had requested everyone that that this was the date of release. So everyone recorded me saying this and you have to post it, you have to put it out.

People were not putting it out on their stories back then. I think there were around 3,000 college students, 3,500 college students.

“So they all did it at that time. We were in Delhi, I believe. And that really translated. There were 3,500 people in the audience, 3,500 people putting it on their account. So how many ever people they reached out to, let’s double it to maybe 7. Even if one person saw each story, 7,000 people. At least 7,000 people knew my date now I think.

“And that’s a small thing. I know it’s not a very mass idea in that sense. But I think one of the bigger, massier ideas nowadays, what Bisleri has started doing is, they’ve started putting film posters on their brand and stuff like that.

That obviously will reach out to tons and tons of people as well. It’s about an emotion.” He then spoke about ‘Border’. His social media numbers on Border he noted are insane as compared to the rest of his films. “My Instagram used to blow up with comments, would blow up with reshares. And that wouldn’t happen in the same manner on other films.”

‘Border’ he added happens to be the film pre-release for which he was trolled the most. “There was a meme of mine, I’m sure you all must have seen it. I got a couple of ads also because of that. But the amount of reshares, and the amount of likes, and the amount of conversation that just happened, probably because of the trolling, probably because nostalgia, I don’t know. People liked what they saw, they didn’t like. But the amount of conversation could have also, I would like to believe that it also resulted in the film getting a lot more exposure as well.”

There was a song he said which was out. Now that song obviously was doing wonderfully well. But his meme was attached to that song. So every time my meme went out, people would put the song with it. Now this is free. The production’s not paying for this.

But the song copyright holder could have removed it because it’s their copyright. But they chose to not remove it because this pushed the song going viral. “It was a meme, it was just a meme. Maybe it was harmless, maybe it was harmful, we don’t know. But it did help the song going viral for a lot of weeks, more than probably it would have. Because it was just free publicity. If someone just keeps posting your song with an image, someone or the other’s going to hear it. So that kept translating, I guess. But we didn’t make the meme. I didn’t do that) I’ve been doing that smile since I’ve been in the industry. I think someone just got onto it now.”