Varun Dhawan believes there are audiences for both commercial and realistic films. The actor, who has struck a balance between the two by working in commercial entertainers like Judwa 2 and realistic films like October, says the larger-than-life type films were at their peak in the 1990s. "I think the slice-of-life heartland films and the common-man films are always going to run. There was a phase probably in the '90s where the escapist kind of cinema was doing very well. But now realistic films do well also and they have the potential to run in parallel with larger-than-life films," he says. 

Varun feels that the new generation filmmakers have a fresh vision and Bollywood has become a unifying platform for them. "Things have changed a lot. Many new directors are coming from different parts of the country to make films in Bollywood. I've worked for Shashank Khetan (Dulhania series), who is from Nasik. Our director Sharat Katariya and producer Maneesh Sharma  (Sui Dhaaga) are from Delhi. There are also people from the north adding their flavours to Indian cinema." 

The actor's recent film Sui Dhaaga, co-starring Anushka Sharma, Raghubir Yadav and Yamini Das, which was released last week, opened to critical acclaim. He also has the multi-starrer Kalank in his kitty.