Varun not competing with Sidharth and Alia

Newbie actor Varun Dhawan says he does not consider Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra, his co-stars of debut film ‘Student of the Year’, as competitors in the industry.

Varun, 26, whose second film ‘Main Tera Hero’ is hitting screens much later to their respective releases, said the three of them are still good friends and are cordial to each other. “I don’t consider Alia and Sid as my competitors. Nobody who started his/her career with me is my competitor. I compete with myself. I don’t even keep a tab on what Alia and Sid are doing.

We watch each other’s works and congratulate each other. “We are still very friendly and even before taking flight to Delhi, Sid had given me a long list of eating joints which I must try,” said Varun, who was in the Capital to promote his upcoming release ‘Main Tera Hero’ with co-star Ileana D’Cruz.

Directed by father David Dhawan, the film is a journey of a non-serious boy, who eventually becomes a responsible man. The film, which also stars Nargis Fakhri, will hit theatres this Friday. Varun said though his father is sweet at home, he was a hard task master on sets of the film.

“Dad is like a lion on sets. He looks lenient but he is really strict when it comes to work. He is punctual and expects other to follow time,” Varun said. Varun also cleared the air that his second project took time to release because he left one film in the middle to do his father’s film.

“After ‘SOTY’, I started shooting my next film ‘Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania’ but I left the project midway and started shooting my dad’s film. It was not a commercial decision rather it was an emotional one. My father is old now, he is sixty plus and I feel it is my priority to work with him first than anyone else,” he said.