Dhawan made his acting debut in 2012 with Johar's teen drama "Student of the Year". The film had Alia Bhatt and Sidharth Malhotra also in their debuts. The film was successful at the box office. He became famous with lots of other films such as the romantic comedies "Main Tera Hero" (2014), "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" (2014), and "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017). He was also given credit for Judwaa 2, October (2018), and Sui Dhaaga. However, the success of the eleven films he had was followed by flops of his subsequent films Kalank (2019) and Street Dancer 3D (2020), and Coolie No. 1 (2020), which was a remake of his father's 1995 film of the same name. In fact, Coolie No. 1 (2020) was considered the worst film ever made.