Student of the Year turns 10: Karan Johar says they weren’t a happy family during shooting, felt like a protective parent for Alia, Sidharth and Varun
Student of the Year, which marked the entry of Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra in the Hindi cinema, was released in cinemas on October 19, 2012. Today, as the film completed 10 years of its release, the film’s director Karan Johar shared an emotional note on social media. He mentioned how he never intended to make a cinematic masterpiece with Student of the Year and for him, it was a ‘holiday film’.
In the video, which featured snippets from the movie, KJo said, “Student of the Year is the celebration of everything I love about cinema. The zest, the youth, the comedy, the zing, the music, the comic timing. Everything that I love about Hindi cinema is a part of Student of the Year.” The filmmaker shared that while making the movie, the entire team was ‘not’ like a happy family, as is often said those involved in the process of filmmaking.
“It’s really cliche to say we are one happy family because we never really are and everyone is really screaming and shouting to get the work done. But this felt like I was an old student in a high school,” shared Karan.
For Karan, Student of the Year gave him more than a “commercial success” or a film in his “directorial archives”. It gave him three of his most special relationships with Alia, Varun and Sidharth. He shared, “SOTY started of as me making a “holiday film”…. A film that certainly wasn’t intended to move any cinematic mountains but a film that was young, fun and entertaining … what I didn’t realise then that this film would give me so much more than memories or a commercial success … would give so much more than a film in my directorial archives… this film gave me three of my most defining relationships … Sid, Varun and Alia went on to become my family”
Alia Bhatt in Student Of The Year (Photo: Dharma Productions)
Karan Johar added that he talks to his three prodigies every day and feels protective about them like a parent. He wrote, “I never knew way back then that I would have children of my own …but my first protective parental feeling was for all three of them… I love you SID! I love you VARUN and I love you ALIA( yes yes I know I am not supposed to keep saying it but what the heck love is love )… I say it to my kids and I want to say it to all 3 of you ….. love you to the moon and back ….”
Earlier, Karan had himself roasted the film on his chat show Koffee With Karan. He had shared how he had doubts about the film’s script while shooting it. “What we finally shot was very different from what the script actually was. We changed that. I don’t know what I was doing. I think I was drunk or something. I started shooting for the film and I was like why is the script so bad? Of course, it turned out to be an entertaining watch, but it had its own journey,” the filmmaker had said.
Student of the Year was a huge success at the box office. The film’s opening weekend collection was Rs 30 cr and it ended its run in the theaters in 2012 with Rs 70 cr in its kitty.
