Mumbai, Dec 4 (IANS): After playing a fulfilled guy on the screen, Varun Dhawan has shifted to a darker role with his forthcoming film "Badlapur". He is confident the audience would accept him in his new avatar and adds that it is unwise to doubt viewers' intelligence.

Known for being part of youth-centric money-spinneres like "Student Of The Year" and "Main Tera Hero", Varun enters a darker territory with "Badlapur", which is loaded with violence.

Set in the year 2000, the revenge saga would see Varun getting violent and killing people and he is impressive in his in act, as far as the trailer shows.

Asked if his fans would accept him in the negative avatar, he said: "We insult the intelligence of the youth. Children are very intelligent, today. People ask, is it okay for kids to watch the film? The fact is we (films) are better than news where you see war and fights happening all the time."

"Today's kids and youth are way smarter than how we were."

Despite Sriram Raghvan's directorial venture being gory, Varun hopes "Badlapur" is cleared with U/A certificate so that it reaches out to a wider audience when it releases Feb 20, 2015.

He said: "The story is about crime. There is violence in the film and I am prepared for an A-certificate, but, if it gets U/A-certificate, then more people will be able to watch it."

"We don't want to dilute it. We leave it to the censors to decide whether above 12-year-old can watch the film."

Varun will get ample support from Huma Quershi and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who are playing prominent characters in "Badlapur".

As for his preparation for the role, Varun's mother feels he got so deeply involved with his character while shooting for "Badlapur" that she started feeling he was not her son.

When asked if he took his character home, she said: "There were times when I felt he is not my son. If he had a knife, he would have first stabbed me. It was a change in his personality I was scared about, but I believe that was for the best."