Karan Johar slams trolls mocking Varun Dhawan as ‘Border 2’ opens to rave reviews

However, the backlash has done little to dent the film’s momentum, with Border 2 releasing today to strong audience response and positive reviews.

Stepping in to defend his protégé, filmmaker Karan Johar took to Instagram to praise the film and call out online critics. Johar, who launched Varun’s career with Student of the Year, said the success of Border 2 had rendered social media trolling irrelevant.

“Has to be said… the reason why it’s called a virtual world! Real will always score and prove the noise on social media as defunct,” Johar wrote. “You can troll an artist for his smile, but then he laughs when the film releases to packed houses and he receives pure, authentic audience love.”

He added that “noisemakers and clickbait-seeking content creators” could continue their attacks, but “truth will always prevail.”

Varun Dhawan had earlier addressed the trolling while speaking to the media at the Border 2 ‘Braves of the Soil’ tribute trailer launch. The actor said he consciously avoids engaging with online negativity and prefers to let his work speak for itself.

“I believe that you shut down the noise and let your work do the talking,” Varun said, adding that social media criticism does not influence him. “I don’t work for this. What I work for, you will find out this Friday.”

Expressing confidence in the film, he said numbers did not concern him as long as the story resonated. “It’s very important to make a good film. I believe we’ve made one.”

Directed by Anurag Singh, Border 2 is produced by Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, JP Dutta and Nidhi Dutta under the T-Series Films and JP Films banners.

The film sees Sunny Deol return as the central protagonist, alongside Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Ahan Shetty, with Mona Singh, Sonam Bajwa, Anya Singh and Medha Rana in key roles.