My Compelling Story

Does David Dhawan smoke: Not Known.Does David Dhawan drink alcohol: Not Known.Born Rajinder Dhawan, the story behind his changed name is quite interesting. While explaining the mystery behind his name in an interview, Dhawan said that his neighbors were Christians and used to randomly call him David. Soon, even his parents started calling him by the same name. Surprisingly enough, after he passed out of college, his father suggested him to officially change his name to David..Initially, Dhawan had no plans of joining the film industry; however, when his elder brother, Anil, applied for an acting course at the FTII, he also thought of giving it a try. Thus Dhawan enrolled himself in the same course and institute.After spending a few months there, he gathered that acting wasnt his cup of tea. As a result, he abandoned the course mid-way and chose an editing course instead.While late actor Om Puri was his batchmate, actor Naseeruddin Shah was a year senior to him.Dhawan passed out as a gold medalist in editing. However, his ultimate aim at the time was to become a film director.In the first few years of his career, Dhawan worked as a news editor for Bombay TV. Slowly and steadily, he made a transition into film-editing with movies like Love Story (1981), Saaransh (1984) and Naam (1986).In an interview, he revealed that he is indebted to actor Sanjay Dutt for all the success, as it was none other than the latter who helped him bag his first break as a director.To date, Dhawan has directed over 42 movies.