Student of the Year 2

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.

During an inter-school multi-event tournament, a fight breaks out between Pishorilal and St. Teresa's students, ending in Rohan's teammate Abhishek being badly injured. At the hospital, Mia holds Rohan's hand in front of Shreya to show that they had reconciled. She apologizes to Mia and after blessing them with happiness, she leaves. Rohan follows her and professes his love, but she refuses.

Pishorilal manages to climb up the ranks and reach the final against St. Teresa. On the second night, Mia tries to kiss Rohan, but he refuses, saying that it was time to focus on accomplishing something. Although upset, she decides to support him and they become friends.

Before the final, he confesses his love to Shreya again, which she accepts when he tells her that Mia was just a friend. Shreya and Mia support Pishorilal in the match. Enraged, Rohan helps his team fight and win the tournament, defeating St. Teresa. Rohan and Shreya embrace, while Mia leaves smiling, knowing that Rohan's dream of being the Student of the Year will now come true. Pishorilal celebrates their first-ever victory, and Rohan becomes the Student of the Year, leaving Manav upset.

Cast

• Tiger Shroff as Rohan Sachdev
  • Suryansh Kapoor as 15-year old Rohan
    • Madhav Dhingra as 9-year old Rohan
• Tara Sutaria as Mridula "Mia" Chawla
  • Suhani Sethi as 15-year old Mia
    • Dhanaya Madan as 9-year old Mia
• Ananya Panday as Shreya Randhawa
• Aditya Seal as Manav Singh Randhawa, Shreya's elder brother
• Harsh Beniwal as Puggi, Rohan's best friend, student of Pishorilal Chamandas College
• Sahil Anand as Jeet Khurana, Dimpy's friend
• Manjot Singh as Dimple "Dimpy" Singh, Jeet's friend
• Samir Soni as Gujral, Dean of St. Teresa College
• Gul Panag as Kuljeet, Coach of St. Teresa College
• Abhishek Bajaj as Abhishek, Captain of Pishorilal Chamandas College team
• Manoj Pahwa as Randhir Mahipal, Coach of Pishorilal Chamandas College
• Ayesha Raza Mishra as Archana Singh, Dean of Pishorilal Chamandas College
• Rajesh Kumar as Prem Narayan Sachdev, Rohan's uncle
• Manasi Joshi Roy as Rohan's aunt
• Chetan Pandit as Sukesh Singh Randhawa, Shreya and Manav's father
• Samreen Kaur as Vandana Chawla, Mia's mother

Special appearances

• Will Smith after the song "The Jawaani Song"
• Alia Bhatt in the song "The Hook Up Song"
• Farah Khan as a judge in the dance contest
• Sahil Anand as Commentator Jeet Khurana; Anand reprises his role from the original
• Manjot Singh as Commentator Dimple "Dimpy" Singh; Singh reprises his role from the original
• Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani as judges in the dance contest

Production

Development

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".

Casting

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. 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 wrote a new script, a sequel to Student of the Year. 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".

Samir Soni, who had previously appeared in Malhotra's I Hate Luv Storys in 2012 and since shifted to direction, returned to acting by playing a college principal, a supporting role similar to the one originally portrayed by Rishi Kapoor in Student of the Year. However, the principal in the first film identified as gay, while the one played by Soni was heterosexual and more comical. Media outlets speculated that Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan, who had starring debut roles in the previous film, would feature in a cameo appearance for a song. In May 2019, it was revealed that Bhatt features in a special appearance for the "Hook-up" song, alongside Shroff.

As a part of Will Smith's Bucket List, Will Smith appeared in a song in the film for satisfying his wish of appearing in a Bollywood production.

Filming

Principal photography for Student of the Year 2 began on 9 April 2018 in Dehradun. Shortly afterwards, parts of the film were shot at Rishikesh and Mussoorie as part of the schedule. Major shots were also done at Guru Nanak Fifth Centenary School, adding an authentic touch to the film's backdrop. Sets for the film were also erected in Film City, Mumbai. After the film's production was delayed, Sutaria's filming schedule began to clash with that of her other project Kabir Singh; she quit that film to ensure that shooting took place smoothly. In August 2018, a four-day sequence was filmed in Thailand. Filming ended in September 2018 with the shooting of the climax sequence. Student of the Year 2 was produced on an estimated budget of ₹650 million, including promotion and advertising costs.