You can tell Varun is in on the joke. For a while now he’s been the butt of some good-natured ribbing over a certain lopsided grin, but he’ll have you know the picture is poora AI and has netted him 3 new endorsements. And he had to have his say: Mere pe aaya to Arjun Kapoor khush ho gaya.
The smile that paid off
Dhawan is not shying away from it. "Mere trolling ke baad mujhe 3 ad mile,” he put it, making something of the online jibes.
His point of view is as plain as day: in 2026, if you’re going to be hauled over the coals on the web, you might as well go with the flow than let it sink you.
What Varun says the viral image gets wrong
He is of the opinion that the picture in question is a Frankenstein. The uniform isn’t right for Border 2, the hair is all wrong, you can see a bit of ABCD 2 in the face, and the body? Not his. “Poora AI hai ye photo,” he says.
It’s worth noting because the meme was a dig at his role in a war movie. He is firm that you will not find this in Border 2.
Where he said it, and why it clicked
On a Zoom with some comedians for Tanmay Bhat’s channel, Dhawan was there to put out some word for Hai Jawani To Ishq Hona Hai and to have a little fun with his own memes. It was a no-fuss kind of segment: let them have their laugh, then you make one of your own.
There’s a clip doing the rounds of him with a smile, reiterating that the viral grin is an AI creation, nothing more.
The Arjun Kapoor quip everyone is quoting
He put it in perspective: “2026 me aisa kaunsa manushya hai jiski trolling nahi hoti.” Everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then he let it rip: “Jab mere pe aaya to Arjun khush ho gaya tha.”
That one stings a little. His friend and co-star Arjun Kapoor had to put up with some of it in 2025 over an old video that came back to life.
Fans, films, and the bigger picture
Dealing with the meme machine is just part of being in the game for Dhawan. Rather than put his head down, he stays in the light and in the bank. The 3 ad deals are proof of it.
Here is what he had to say, in a nutshell:
– That smile is AI, not from Border 2
– Uniform and hair don’t add up
– Face is more like ABCD 2
– The body is not mine
– Trolling has its rewards (3 ads)
Meanwhile at the box office
Put the memes aside and the figures are what they are. With Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde by his side in Hai Jawani To Ishq Hona Hai, the reviews were underwhelming. In five days, it put in a Rs 36 crore net.
So you do what you have to. When the movie is quiet, the star has to be loud.
What comes next
Dhawan is of the mind that being upfront is better than being on the defensive. He has taken a drubbing and made it a little entertainment with a line or two about Arjun.
You have to have the internet on your side, set the record where it needs to be, and let your work and your sense of humor do the rest.
