Born on February 4, 1990, Varun Sharma hails from Jalandhar, Punjab. After completing his studies from The Lawrence School in Sanawar, Varun pursued further studies from Apeejay School in Jalandhar to complete Class 11 and 12. Varun Sharma has a degree in Media, Entertainment and Film Technology from ITFT Chandigarh. (All photos/Varun Sharma's official Instagram account)

Varun Sharma's mother was a fine arts teacher at a college in Jalandhar. His mother retired in 2015 after 38 years of service and she now lives with him in Mumbai.

Varun Sharma, who made his Bollywood debut in 2013 with Fukrey, has a fan following of 831K on Instagram and 158.5K on Twitter. He is happy that he has achieved his dream of becoming an actor, for which his family supported him. "If I am with my family and if a fan or an admirer comes and gets a picture clicked, the smile on my mother's face is beautiful. I know she has struggled for it, she had the strength of sending her son in an industry which doesn't give you the certainty of revenue or persistence of work," Varun told PTI. 

"Now, when she smiles with all the fame I've got, it feels great that you can make your parents happy by achieving your dreams which they believed in too," he said.

Such was the appeal of his character in his debut vehicle - Fukrey - that he had become synonymous with Choocha. Ever since his debut in 2013, Varun has featured in multi-cast films such as the Fukrey franchise, Dolly Ki Doli, Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon, Dilwale, Arjun Patiala and Khandaani Shafakhana.

But lately, Varun Sharma added another memorable role to his filmography - that of Sexa in Nitesh Tiwari's Chhichhore, which starred Sushant Singh Rajput and Shraddha Kapoor.

"During my growing up days, there were iconic characters such as Gabbar and Vijay Deenanath Chauhan. The biggest reward for any actor is to be recognised by the characters they play. Right since my debut, Choocha stayed with me, and now, it's overwhelming to see the audience's love for Sexa," he says.

In Chhichhore, Varun Sharma was seen portraying the king of porn. The actor also had a confession to make when the porn king tag got attached. A friend of Varun revealed, "Varun managed to be the blue-eyed boy of teachers covering the notorious acts that he would pull off during college days. But there was this one time when a friend of ours had a lot of explicit content and he named it Varun Sharma's folder circulating the same throughout college. We all had a laugh and that's when he got the title of king in college and all these memories take us back down memory lane."

On touching base with Varun, he stated, "It is so funny how life comes a full circle, now that in Chhichhore, my character demanded it and back then in college, I was made one."

In his seven-year career so far, Varun Sharma has largely been seen in comic roles. Quiz him if he is worried about being typecast, and he reasons, "It has given me the name that I have today. It has given me an acceptance amongst the audience. So, it will be kind of wrong to leave this genre or take a break from this genre to kind of attempt something else. But my effort to do something else - some other genre is always going to be constant."

While Varun Sharma is open to doing TV shows, he is not keen on featuring on the run-of-the-mill soaps and reality series. He was offered daily soaps in the past, something he politely turned down.

On the work front, Varun Sharma will be next seen in Janhvi Kapoor's Roohi Afzana.

Here's wishing a very happy birthday to Varun Sharma!