Bollywood star Varun Dhawan says collaborating with filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari on their upcoming project "Bawaal" helped him get back to the basics of his craft that led him to acting in the first place. Dhawan said while trying to "come across a certain way" on screen, actors often forget simple things and "Bawaal" helped him refocus on them.

"When you're in a field for a very long time, you often overlook the simple things... Things that got you to the party in the first place. It's just about getting these simple things correct," the actor told PTI in a group interview at an event in Dubai where the team launched the film's trailer.

The filming on "Bawaal" started last year in April and during the course of the shooting, Dhawan said Tiwari made him realise his habit of tilting his head like Amitabh Bachchan.

"I remember very well, something would happen to me. I don't know why but subconsciously, when shooting a scene, I would become like this (tilts his head). So Nitesh sir would keep telling me 'Brother aapka gardan jhuk raha hai... aap Bachchan ki tarah kyun...?' I also don't know why and what habit that I've formed, that I'm angling myself while talking or wanting to come across a certain way. That was something I had to work on," he said.

Cinema is a visual medium, and it is important for an actor to connect with the audience, said Dhawan, 36.

"So these are things which I had to work on in terms of my craft... It's like going back and standing in front of a mirror and then trying to say the line straight, again and again." "Bawaal" follows an ordinary but popular high school history teacher Ajay Dixit (Dhawan), fondly called Ajju bhaiya, who enjoys a mini celebrityhood in his hometown. The film features Janhvi Kapoor as Ajay's wife Nisha.

Kapoor said while she always knew working on the film would be a special journey, she never imagined it to be so "simple and joyful".

"It's an emotionally layered film and Nitesh sir is such a big director... I assumed that there would be some different directions... It will be complicated. I'd already have to step up, but the simplicity, clarity and the purity of the story made everything easy. 'Bawaal' taught me a lot about how good things don't necessarily have to be complicated," the 26-year-old actor said.

Set to premiere on Prime Video on July 21, the film focuses on "a series of events which take place on Ajay and Nisha's trip to the World War II trail in Europe and test their marriage, forcing Ajay to confront the biggest war of them all - the war within", according to the official synopsis.

At the trailer launch of the movie in Dubai over the weekend, Tiwari's wife, writer-filmmaker Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, said the film was also an ode to her father-in-law, who was a history teacher and wanted to visit places affected by World War II.

Visiting these places during the making of "Bawaal" was an eye-opener for him, said Tiwari, known for directing blockbuster dramas "Dangal" and "Chhichhore".

"These are all experiences. Trust me, there's a lot of difference between what you read, and what you see...," he added. The movie was shot across various locations in India and Europe, including Germany and Auschwitz in Poland.

The director said "the gravitas and seriousness of what unfolded before my eyes, actually made me believe that what we have written on paper is pretty meaningful. It made me like the content which we had on paper even more because I hope it will make people think." "Bawaal" is written by Tiwari, Nikhil Mehrotra, Piyush Gupta, Shreyas Jain and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari.

Dhawan credited the film's writing team for coming up with a unique subject that he said would be a "conversation starter".

"Honestly, the magic is in the writing. I can say this with a lot of confidence that rarely you get a bound script with every line written. Everything is clear. It is a unique original subject. I think it is a conversation starter," the actor said.

"Bawaal" is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala’s banner Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment in collaboration with Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Tiwari's Earthsky Pictures.

The film will premiere on Prime Video in India and across 200 countries and territories worldwide.

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