Student of the Year 2

Student of the Year 2 is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language teen film written by Arshad Sayed and directed by Punit Malhotra. It was produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar and Apoorva Mehta under the banner Dharma Productions, and was distributed by Fox Star Studios. A sequel to the 2012 film Student of the Year, it stars Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria and Ananya Panday. The film follows Rohan, a college student who switches to a better university to rekindle his relationship with his childhood sweetheart who studies there. When Rohan is rusticated, he returns to his old college and vows to lead his new team to victory in an inter-college cup against his former college, thereby becoming Student of the Year.

Student of the Year 2 was announced in November 2017. Initially, Malhotra and Shroff were to collaborate for a different film; when they found the final script unsatisfactory, they tweaked it and planned to make it a sequel. It marks the debut of both Sutaria and Panday, and pursues a plot that is unrelated to its predecessor. Principal photography for the film began in April 2018 at Dehradun, and ended in September 2018. The film's soundtrack was composed by Vishal-Shekhar, with lyrics written by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Kumaar and Vayu, and released under the banner Zee Music Company.

Student of the Year 2 was theatrically released in India on 10 May 2019. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, with the script and unreal situation receiving criticism; Shroff's action sequences were praised. As of 7 June 2019, it has earned ₹97.81 crore worldwide, against a budget of ₹65 crore, including promotion and advertising costs.

Plot
Rohan Sachdev is a middle class student of the Pishorilal Chamandas College in Mussoorie. His relationship with former classmate and childhood sweetheart Mridula Chawla is affected when Mridula transfers to St. Teresa's High School, a college in Dehradun for the wealthy and privileged. Rohan is unable to afford their fees and is left back, but vows to make his cut. To be together with Mridula, he applies for a scholarship under the sports quota in the college and manages to gain admission. Meanwhile, Mridula has changed her identity and rechristened herself as Mia Chawla to fit in with others at her new college. Upon meeting Rohan, she initially stays away from him because of his relatively inferior spark, but they soon begin a relationship again, after Rohan starts being recognized as a sportsman.

Rohan is introduced to Manav Singh Randhawa, a rich and affluent student and two-time winner of the Student of the Year Cup. The two become quick friends, but Rohan remains at loggerheads with Manav's sister Shreya Randhawa, who appears to be a spoilt brat and detests him, often playing pranks on him that cause him trouble. Manav organizes a superhero-themed birthday party for his friends where Rohan and Mia are invited, but a prank by Shreya results in Rohan's friends from Pishorilal Chamandas getting insulted and beaten, only for them to disown Rohan, who realizes that the prank was Shreya's brainchild. Friction between the two reaches an alarming height when Shreya sprays Rohan's bicycle fully pink as he had used her parking space. A private meeting in Principal Gujral's office is called for, and Shreya's father, college chief trustee Sukesh Randhawa, slaps Shreya, and walks away giving word to Rohan for a compensation for the damage. Rohan tries to convince her for a healthy friendship, but Shreya rebuffs his proposal, taking the slap to heart.

The college, meanwhile, announces a dance competition, where Rohan and Mia are set up against Manav and Shreya. Mia wishes to win the contest and attain popularity, while Shreya wants to convince Sukesh of her skills in dance and enroll in a dance school in London. Manav and Shreya win the contest after Mia falters during a step. When Rohan goes to console Mia, he instead finds her getting intimate with Manav, and realises that Manav, knowing Mia had a crush on him, had planted her to spoil Rohan's performance since he saw him as a threat to his image.

Rohan punches Manav, and is expelled from St. Teresa's. Before leaving the campus, Manav and his gang attack Rohan and beat him vigorously, throwing him out of the campus gate unconscious. Initially finding himself struggling to deal with what he sees as Mia's betrayal, he goes back and challenges Manav saying he, and not Manav, will be winning the Student of the Year trophy in 2019.

Rohan then returns back to Pishorilal Chamandas, where his old friends treat him with coldness and contempt. Shreya, who is impressed by Rohan's sincerity, convinces his friends to warm up to him, falling in love with him in the process after he helps her win a local dance competition and drops about her house to tell Sukesh that he should be proud of his daughter. Shreya reveals to Rohan that her mother's sudden demise upon her birth led Sukesh and Manav to consider her an ill omen for the house. At this point, Manav has already found out about Rohan and Shreya and tells the latter to refrain from meeting the former, misinterpreting Rohan's company with her as a sign of revenge, but she rebukes him. Rohan continues to avoid Mia despite her efforts to talk to him.

However, a day after the local dance competition which he has helped Shreya win, Rohan finds Mia at his doorstep while hanging out with Shreya, and all three of them find out that a love triangle has taken them up when Mia reveals that she sent unattended letters to Rohan upon realizing that Manav was a cheater. Although she initially thinks Rohan and Mia would get back together, Rohan affirms his genuine love for Shreya through a warm, affectionate hug just as she is about to leave the hospital after visiting Rohan's rival Abhishek, who was left severely wounded after Manav and his friends beat him and Rohan's other classmates up. This was during a fight that broke out between the two student factions due to the comments thrown at Manav during the inauguration of the 29th Annual Inter-College Dignity Cup, an intercollegiate competition where Pishorilal has been finishing at the bottom of the chart for the past few years. Mia realizes that she has lost Rohan for good. Abhishek then makes amends and peace with Rohan, and they decide to fight back as a team when the former realizes that the latter risked himself in the fight.

Rohan and his teammates train hard to win the Dignity Cup, and Pishorilal Chamandas begins climbing up the score chart, getting a close second to St. Teresa's. Meanwhile, a saddened Mia hangs out with Rohan one night, when he tells her that he won't repeat a mistake he made while imagining their relationship, which was to assume her as his only goal in life. Mia leaves, dejected, but is fully satisfied and happy for Rohan and his newfound purpose in life, and she does not return to Manav. On the eve of the finale between St. Teresa's and Pishorilal Chamandas, an anxious Rohan proposes to Shreya, who accepts his love, and encourages him to fight for the right. Even though Manav and his teammates engage in foul play against Rohan's team, Rohan single-handedly takes them down after a bonus chance, gaining two extra points ahead of the rivals. All-time winner St.Teresa's loses the Dignity Cup for the first time, Rohan holding the trophy up high and became Student of the Year for the first time.

Cast

 * Tiger Shroff as Rohan Sachdev
 * Tara Sutaria as Mridula "Mia" Chawla
 * Ananya Panday as Shreya Randhawa
 * Aditya Seal as Manav Singh Randhawa
 * Samir Soni as Principal Avinash Gujral
 * Gul Panag as Coach Kuljeet Chaddha
 * Abhishek Bajaj as Abhishek Sharma
 * Manoj Pahwa as Coach Mahipal
 * Ayesha Raza Mishra as Principal Archana Singh
 * Rajesh Kumar as Prem Narayan Sachdev, Rohan's uncle
 * Manasi Joshi Roy as Sushmita Sachdev, Rohan's aunt
 * Chetan Pandit as Sukesh Randhawa, Shreya and Manav's father
 * Samreen Kaur as Manorama Chawla, Mia's mother
 * Manjot Singh as Commentator Dimpy
 * Sahil Anand as Commentator Jeet Khurana
 * Daljeet Singh as Abdullah Wahab
 * Harsh Beniwal as Puggi
 * Alia Bhatt (special appearance in "The Hook Up Song")
 * Suryansh Kapoor as Junior Rohan
 * Will Smith (special appearance in "The Jawaani Song")
 * Farah Khan (special appearance as judge of "The Jawaani Song")
 * Vishal–Shekhar (special appearance as judge of "The Jawaani Song")

Development and casting
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 conflated 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, and it would be both their film debuts. The announcement wasn't well-received by the public, who accused Johar of nepotism. 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 made his film debut by playing a friendly rival to Shroff's character. Harsh Beniwal, a YouTuber, also makes his film debut as a Sikh student; in preparation for the role, he 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". Malhotra took experience from his time as a student at Mumbai's H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, but made the film version much grander. Malhotra 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, Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt, who had starring 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 the Facebook original Will Smith's Bucket List, Will Smith appeared in a song in the film for satisfying his wish of appearing in a Bollywood production.

Principal photography
Principal photography for Student of the Year 2 began in 9 April 2018 in Dehradun. Shortly afterwards, parts of the film were shot at Rishikesh and Mussoorie as part of the schedule. 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 ₹65 crore, including promotion and advertising costs.

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 Zee Music Company. Reviewing the soundtrack, Pratishruti Ganguly of Firstpost wrote, "Unfortunately, tracks like "Hook Up Song" and "Mumbai Dilli Ki Kudiyan" perhaps indicate that the understanding of the "jawaan" [] pulse is a tad misguided in this film".

The song "Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani", originally sung by Kishore Kumar and composed by R. D. Burman for the soundtrack to the 1972 film Jawani Diwani, was recreated for the film, with vocals provided by Vishal Dadlani and Payal Dev, and was rebranded as "The Jawaani Song". The "Hook Up" song, picturised on Bhatt and Shroff, was sung by Neha Kakkar and Shekhar Ravjiani.

Mumbai Dilli Di Kudiyaan, although released as the second song, was not used in the film, acting only as a promotional song, while Main Bhi Nahin Soya, which was released only with the full audio jukebox, was instead seen in the film, picturized on Shroff.

Marketing and release
The film was announced via a first look poster featuring Shroff that was released on 20 November 2017 by Johar on various social media platforms; the poster carried the release date of 23 November 2018. In April 2018, first look posters featuring Sutaria and Panday announcing the new cast members were released; this was somewhat controversial owing to most of the cast being children of other actors, and this led to accusations of Johar promoting nepotism. On 30 July 2018, a press release by Dharma Productions stated that the film's release date was postponed to 10 May 2019 due to what was speculated to be expected competition from the science fiction 2.0 (2018).

Two new teaser posters were released on 10 April 2019 presenting Shroff's look as a student. Another set of posters featuring Sutaria and Panday were released on 11 April 2019. On 12 April 2019, a theatrical release poster of the film was shared by Johar on his Instagram account; the official trailer was released later that day by Dharma Productions. Kshamaya Daniel of Rediff.com wrote of the trailer, "While the cast and their acting looks promising enough, the storyline – not so much". Ahead of release, a special screening was conducted for close friends and other actors.

Critical response
Student of the Year 2 was released to generally mixed reviews from critics; it also received a mixed reception from the public. Criticism was primarily directed to the script and unreal setting of the film. Meena Iyer of Daily News and Analysis gave it three stars out of five, writing, "This is the kind of film, which draws inspiration from the Archie comics with Tiger being Archie, flanked by a Veronica (Ananya) and Betty (Tara)". She concludes, "Apart from Will Smith's miss-if-you-blink appearance, watch [the film] for Tiger. Even when things around him are caving in, his ballerina grace is intact". Kunal Guha of Mumbai Mirror gave two and a half stars out of five and wrote it "excessively leans on tested formula", but follows, "There’s just something winning about a man with modest means, forcing his privileged adversary to eat dust". Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in, who gave the film two stars out of five, wrote, "The sequel that nobody wanted is neither an improvement over the original nor a downgrade of it", referring to it as a "glammed-up version" of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992). Ramnath felt that Panday showed potential in the "[a]ll games and no fun" film.

In a more positive review, Ronak Kotecha of The Times of India gave the film three stars out of five, writing that it "doesn’t have that Ishq wala love, but there is ample dosti, high school drama and cool stuff to keep you going". Manjusha Radhakrishnan of Gulf News stated the film was "[t]rite and inane, but fun to be had"; she felt "the first hour is immensely enjoyable, [but] the second half of the film feels laboured". Ambica Sachin of Khaleej Times wrote, "Call it guilty pleasure or escapism, let's get one thing out of the way, nobody goes for a Karan Johar movie expecting great cinema", granting it three stars out of five. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama praised the sceeenplay for being "praiseworthy as its peppered with some entertaining, dramatic and even moving moments". He wrote, "On the whole, Student of the Year 2 is an entertaining and an enjoyable fare which will strike a chord in the audience's hearts".

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave it one and a half stars out of five and called the film "an egregiously escapist campus-rumpus musical in which nattily attired, unbelievably idle boys and skimpily clad girls... play games that make as much sense as a camel race on an airport tarmac", adding, "There isn't a single moment in the film that could be described as passable". Similarly, Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave one and a half stars out of five and expressed, "This class of 2019 has predictable beats, which is to be expected in an underdog story, but that it is so stilted is disappointing: from KJo I expect much more swish and sparkle". She felt Shroff "executes his dances-and-fights efficiently, even though [he] struggles to appear student-like". Writing for Firstpost, Anna M. M. Vetticad gave the film one and a half stars out of five: "Cliché is piled on cliché in this unoriginal screenplay". Rajeev Masand of CNN-News18 gave it two stars out of five and said, "Student of the Year 2 is both predictable, and far from original... It isn’t unwatchable, it’s just unnecessary."

Box office
In India, the film had an average opening for the first shows with an occupancy rate of 20-25%. It went on to earn ₹11.75-12 crore nett on its first day in India, becoming the 5th highest opener of the year. The film had fair growth on Saturday, earning ₹13.5-13.75 crore nett. On Sunday, collections were affected by the IPL final and polling for the 2019 Indian general election, and the film's earning came down to ₹12.25-12.5 crore nett. The following day, the film collected about ₹5 crore nett, which was considered average. On Tuesday, it earned a fair amount of ₹4.75-5 crore nett. The film followed with ₹4 crore nett on Wednesday and ₹3.5 crore on Thursday for a first week total of ₹55.25 crore nett. On its second Friday, the film had a 60 percent drop as collections reached ₹1.5 crore nett. The second weekend collection was ₹6 crore nett. On its second Monday, the film earned ₹1.15 crore nett. Following a drop in collections in the second week, the film stopped screening at most theatres. It has earned ₹97.81 crore worldwide, with earnings of ₹82.27 crore in India and ₹15.54 crore overseas.

Home video
The film was made available as VOD on Prime Video on 1 September 2019.