David Dhawan’s real name was Rajinder Dhawan but his loving Christian neighbours out of affection called him David and the nickname stuck, so much so that his parents asked him to officially change it legally to David. He too wanted to be an actor like his brother and had enrolled in FTII where his peers were Suresh Oberoi and Satish Shah, but he felt he did not have the talent and hence took up editing. Film Direction followed. Dhawan is on the board of Asian Academy of Film & Television and Asian School of Media Studies where he has been honoured with an Academy Award by Sandeep Marwah.

Dhawan first teamed with actor Govinda for the film Taaqatwar (1989). He then formed a collaboration with Govinda and went on to direct 17 movies with him as the leading actor, most of which were comedy films and most of them were super-hits. The films made by their collaboration are Taaqatwar (1989), Swarg (1990), Shola Aur Shabnam (1992), Aankhen (1993), Raja Babu (1994), Coolie No. 1 (1995), Saajan Chale Sasural (1996), Banarasi Babu (1997), Deewana Mastana (1997), Hero No. 1 (1997), Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (1998), Haseena Maan Jaayegi (1999), Kunwara (2000), Jodi No.1 (2001), Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (2003), Partner (2007) and Do Knot Disturb (2009). Partner, which co-starred Salman Khan, grossed Rs. 300 Million in India on its opening week, the second highest domestic opening week gross for an Indian film at that time. The same year, Salman Khan invited Dhawan and Govinda on his show 10 Ka Dum to celebrate their film Partner. Dhawan got back to the trio of Govinda, Ritesh Deshmukh and himself with the film, Do Knot Disturb.

Happy Birthday, David. Wishing you and your director son Rohit and actor son Varun an even more rollicking journey ahead.