Varun Dhawan Says His 11-Hit Flex Jinxed Him on Koffee With Karan

Varun Dhawan has stopped counting his hits. On the latest episode of Koffee With Karan 9, he revisited the moment from Season 6 that followed him for years — and admitted it may have cost him.

The flex that came back to bite

In November 2018, Karan Johar asked Varun whether he would swap careers with Ranbir Kapoor or Ranveer Singh. His answer was a blunt ‘none.’ At the time, both actors had seen a box office failure; Varun, he said, had not.

The claim wasn’t baseless. Student of the Year, Main Tera Hero, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, ABCD 2, Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Judwaa 2 had all worked for him. But the line took on a life of its own.

Jinx, or just timing?

On the new episode, Varun declined to relitigate the numbers. ‘The only flex one should do is with their work. Many years ago, I came here and flexed about how many hits I had. Somewhere, it jinxed me or something,’ he said.

When Janhvi Kapoor pointed out the number of hits being discussed had reached 11, Varun agreed but refused to make a new boast. ‘I don’t want to correct you. That would feel like a flex now,’ he told Karan.

The timing matters. His 2018 remark resurfaced in December 2024, when Baby John underperformed at the box office, and social media users joked the confident statement had invited bad luck.

What Ajay Devgn gets right

Varun pointed to Ajay Devgn as the blueprint — an actor who treats people the same whether a film works or not. ‘When you are successful or something becomes a success, sometimes it is better to be like Ajay Devgn,’ he said.

For an audience that follows stars as closely as the films, that’s the real takeaway:

• A boast ages fast — the 2018 clip still trails Varun today.
• Eleven hits don’t shield a star from a bad quarter, and they don’t have to.
• The even-keel play, Ajay Devgn style, keeps success and failure in proportion.

Koffee With Karan has long been Bollywood’s confessional — and its resurfacing machine. One confident answer can become a meme years later, a dynamic that has made stars increasingly careful about what they say on that couch. Varun’s walk-back is less a correction than a lesson in how public statements travel further than any film.

His pivot also reframes how fans should read box office numbers. A career isn’t a clean upward line; even a star with 11 hits has a Baby John. What Varun is endorsing now is consistency over counting — a smaller, quieter kind of confidence that doesn’t need an on-air tally.

The episode leaves the comparison with Ranbir and Ranveer unanswered — deliberately. Instead of stacking his record against his peers again, Varun has chosen to step out of the race entirely. Whether fans buy the new humility or see it as smart PR, it closes a loop he opened in 2018.

Source: bollywoodHungama.com

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#Ajay Devgn#Baby John#Box Office#Janhvi Kapoor#Karan Johar#Koffee with Karan#Varun Dhawan