Student of the Year 2

About the film

Student of the Year 2 is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language sports romantic comedy film directed by Punit Malhotra and produced Karan Johar's Dharma Productions. A standalone sequel to the 2012 film Student of the Year, it stars Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Panday, and Aditya Seal. It marks the debuts of both Panday and Sutaria in Hindi cinema.

Student of the Year 2 was released in on 10 May 2019. Upon its release the film was panned by critics, with criticism directed at the script, unreal situations and unrealistic depiction of Indian schools and colleges, although Shroff's action sequences were praised. Holding a rating of 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, it is among the lowest-rated Indian films. It did an average business at the box office with a worldwide collection of ₹98.16 crore against its ₹65 crore budget.

Plot

Rohan Sachdev, a middle-class student, decides to go to the affluent St. Teresa's College after his childhood sweetheart, Mridula Chawla aka Mia transfers there. The two begin a relationship when Rohan wins the college over by showing his sports skills. Rohan becomes friends with Manav Singh Randhawa, the reigning "Student of the Year" and the son of a wealthy school donor, Sukesh Singh Randhawa. Rohan is at odds with Manav's sister Shreya Randhawa, a popular girl at the college, who detests and insults him one day. One of her pranks creates a rift between Rohan and his friends from his previous school.

Rohan-Mia and Manav-Shreya are coupled up for a dance competition which the latter wins after Mia falters. Rohan finds Mia getting intimate with Manav and realizes that he had deliberately planted her to spoil Rohan's image. He gives Manav a tight slap for stealing her. The next day, for slapping the son of a school trustee, Rohan is expelled from the college and is later brutally beaten up by Manav and his friends and knocked out of the college unconscious. Initially discouraged, he eventually comes back and challenges Manav for the Student of the Year trophy.

Rohan returns to his old school, Pishorilal, where Shreya, impressed by his sincerity, helps him make amends with his old friends. She also convinces him to join her in a national dance competition. Shreya falls in love with him as they practice. Meanwhile, Mia finds Rohan and apologizes to him for leaving him as Manav had cheated on her. The trio then have coffee together to hang out with each other. Mia tries to convince Rohan to get back with her, but Shreya insists against it and an argument starts between Mia and Shreya where the latter accidentally spills coffee over the former.

Production

Student of the Year 2 is a sequel to the 2012 Karan Johar-directed romantic comedy-drama Student of the Year. Shortly after the commercial success of the first film, a sequel was announced by the producers. In November 2017, a press release by Dharma Productions revealed that the sequel is slated to release in 2018; it would be directed by Punit Malhotra and star Tiger Shroff in one of the leading roles. The film was announced four years after Malhotra's previous directorial Gori Tere Pyaar Mein (2013). It was to be produced in association by Johar's Dharma Productions and Fox Star Studios. The film's announcement by the company initially conflicted with that of their another production, Dhadak (2018), which roused speculation that Ishaan Khatter would star in the film. Johar denied the news and stated that the reports were "baseless and untrue".

The announcement did not reveal the rest of the cast; media reports speculated that either Disha Patani or Ananya Panday, daughter of Chunky Pandey, would play the leading lady opposite Shroff. In April 2018, Johar announced that the film's female leads would be Panday and Tara Sutaria, both debutantes. Prior to confirming Student of the Year 2 as her film debut, Sutaria had auditioned for the role of Princess Jasmine in Disney's Aladdin (2019), but lost it to Naomi Scott; she also gave up an acting opportunity in Kabir Singh, which was released in June the same year. Television actor Abhishek Bajaj and Harsh Beniwal, a YouTuber, also make their film debuts. Beniwal, in preparation for the role, put on weight and grew a beard.

Malhotra stated that the two films have unrelated storylines: "The intention of the film is not to make this a Me Too of first part, so Tiger. It's a fresh take on the subject. It's more about sports and action". He was initially supposed to work on a different film with Shroff, but two-three months before filming, they scrapped the project and began working on a sequel to Student of the Year, with writer Arshad Sayed, who had also co-written Gori Tere Pyaar Mein with Malhotra, attached to duties for the story, screenplay and dialogues. In response to accusations that the film raised unhealthy expectations for college life, Shroff said, "What you see here is a fun school. It's a school that you want everyone to be a part of. We wanted everyone to fall in love with it". He plays an underdog in the film, expressing, "It's like Superman has been stripped of his powers".

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics written by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Kumaar and first-time collaborator Vayu, and was released under the banner of Zee Music Company.

Key details