Varun Dhawan, Kiara Advani spoke to friends ‘getting divorced’ for JugJugg Jeeyo

Varun Dhawan and Kiara Advani spoke about how they prepared for their roles in JugJugg Jeeyo. In the upcoming family drama, the actors play a married couple on the brink of divorce.

In a new interview, Varun and Kiara, while promoting the film with co-stars Anil Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor, said they depended on their ‘personal experiences’ to better understand their characters. The actors also said that during the filming, they approached a real-life couple, who was getting a divorce.

In JugJugg Jeeyo, Varun’s Kukoo and Kiara’s Naina are an NRI couple. The two decide to get a divorce, but keep it a secret for some time from their families, including Kukoo’s parents Bheem (Anil) and Geeta (Neetu).

In an interview released on Monday, while Kiara said she learnt from her own parents’ marriage, and what Varun shared with her about his and wife Natasha Dalal’s relationship, Varun spoke about referring to his friends’ relationships, as preparation for his role.

“We brought in a lot of our personal experiences. Varun would always tell me that ‘Natasha would do this in a fight, then suddenly one of us would start laughing’… My parents would also say ‘we do this and that’. We did a lot of referencing.

He (Varun) has called up friends of his, whose marriages were not in the best space. At the time they were going through their divorce, and he would actually call them up and say ‘we’re going through this in the film, and we want to know what those emotions are like, and what you were feeling’,” Kiara told Film Companion.

Varun said that he also spoke with a boy, who caught his father cheating on his mother. In JugJugg Jeeyo, Varun’s character also comes to term with his father wanting to divorce his mother.

“I actually had video clips of two people. One of a young couple, who was getting divorced; and one of a boy, whose father had cheated on his mother. I actually asked him what he went through. He pretty much cried and laughed at the same time, while answering me. You get to learn how to laugh from these things also.

Because for a third person, it is funny only… People are not so sensitive, and they don’t know you. They would tell him (the boy) things like ‘teri do-do ma hain (you have two-two mothers)’. People fool around like that. This is what life is. Now, he (the boy) also laughs about it, because he himself caught his father cheating,” Varun said.

Directed by Raj Mehta, JugJugg Jeeyo is produced by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions and Viacom18 studios. It releases in theatres on June 24.