Varun Dhawan (left) and Janhvi Kapoor attend the press conference for the 69th Filmfare Awards in Mumbai. File/AFP

Bollywood stars Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor have started shooting for their upcoming film ‘Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari’. On Saturday, director-producer Shashank Khaitan took to the Stories section of his Instagram and shared a picture of the clapboard notifying his followers about the film’s shoot.

He wrote on the picture: “Day 1, Sincere gratitude.” Varun also shared the picture posted by his director on his Instagram Stories. Even Karan Johar shared the picture, saying, “Only love for you, go make the best movie Shash.”

“Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari” marks Varun’s third collaboration with Shashank after seven years. It also marks the second collaboration between Shashank and Janhvi after her debut film “Dhadak”.Produced by Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, and Shashank Khaitan, the film also stars Rohit Saraf, Sanya Malhotra, and Akshay Oberoi in key roles. “Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari” is set to release in theatres on April 18, 2025.

The son of film director David Dhawan, he graduated in business studies from the Nottingham Trent University. He began his career as an assistant director to Karan Johar in My Name Is Khan (2010), and subsequently made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar’s teen drama Student of the Year.

He rose to prominence with leading roles in the romantic comedies Main Tera Hero (2014), Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania (2014), and Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017); the action comedies Dilwale (2015), Dishoom (2016), and Judwaa 2 (2017); the dance film ABCD 2 (2015); and the drama Sui Dhaaga (2018).

Dhawan also received praise for playing against type as an avenger in the thriller Badlapur (2015) and an aimless man coping with loss in the drama October (2018). Following three critical and commercial failures, he starred in Jugjugg Jeeyo and Bhediya (both 2022).

Janhvi Kapoor made her acting debut in 2018 with the Shashank Khaitan-directed romance Dhadak, co-starring Ishaan Khatter. A Hindi-language remake of the 2016 Marathi film Sairat, it featured her as a young upper-class girl whose life turns tragic after she elopes with a lower-class boy (played by Khatter).

The film received predominantly negative reviews, but with a worldwide collection of Rs:1.1 billion, it proved to be a commercial success. Writing for News18, Rajeev Masand criticised the film for removing caste-based references and deemed it inferior to the original, but felt Kapoor had “a fragility that makes her instantly endearing, and a soulful quality that makes it hard to take your eyes off her on screen”.

Conversely, Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost thought that she “lacks personality and delivers a colourless performance”. She won the Zee Cine Award for Best Female Debut.

Kapoor’s next screen appearance came in 2020 when she starred in Zoya Akhtar’s segment in the Netflix horror anthology film Ghost Stories. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express disliked the segments but added that the “only real surprise comes from Janhvi Kapoor in a solid, real act”.

Agencies