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 mixed reviews from critics, with the script and unreal situation receiving criticism; Shroff's action sequences were praised. As of 23 May 2019, it has earned ₹94.18 crore worldwide, against a production budget of ₹65–80 crore, to become the ninth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2019.

Plot
Rohan Sachdev, a hardworking student of the Pishorilal Chamandas College in Mussoorie, is in a relationship with Mridula Chawla. They are separated when Mridula transfers to St. Teresa’s, a college in Dehradun for the wealthy and privileged. Rohan is unable to afford their fees and is left back. 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 Mia Chawla to fit in with others at her new college. Upon meeting Rohan, she initially stays away from him, but they soon begin a relationship again.

Rohan is introduced to Manav Singh Randhawa, a rich and affluent student 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 detests him. The college announces a dance competition; Rohan and Mia are set up against Manav and Shreya. Mia wishes to win the contest and attain popularity, while Shreya wants to convince her tyrannical father of her ability 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 finds her hugging Manav.

Rohan punches Manav, and is rusticated from St. Teresa’s; he goes back to Pishorilal Chamandas College. Meanwhile, Shreya falls in love with Rohan. Rohan and his teammates at Pishorilal Chamandas train hard to win the 29th Annual Inter-College Dignity Cup, an inter-college competition. For the past few years, Pishorilal always finished last in the contest. With Rohan's hardwork and motivation and the team's effort, Pishorilal Chamandas College defeats Saint Teresa, the defending champions of the Cup, and Rohan wins the Student of the Year.

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 Gujral
 * Gul Panag as Coach Kuljeet
 * Abhishek Bajaj as Abhishek Sharma
 * Manoj Pahwa as Coach Mahipal
 * Ayesha Raza Mishra as Principal Singh
 * Rajesh Kumar as Chacha
 * Manasi Joshi Roy as Chachi
 * Chetan Pandit as Randhawa Ji
 * Samreen Kaur as Mia's Mom
 * Manjot Singh as Commentator Dimpy
 * Sahil Anand as Commentator Jeet
 * Daljeet Singh as Abdullah Wahab
 * Harsh Beniwal as Puggi
 * Alia Bhatt (special appearance in "The Hook Up Song")
 * Will Smith (special appearance in "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 ₹65–80 crore.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was composed by Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics written by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Kumaar and Vayu. It 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".

"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 Student of the Year 2 by Vishal-Shekhar, with vocals provided by Vishal Dadlani and Payal Dev. The "Hook Up" song, picturised on Bhatt and Shroff, was sung by Neha Kakkar and Shekhar Ravjiani.

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. It has earned ₹94.18 crore worldwide, with earnings of ₹80.76 crore in India and ₹13.42 crore overseas. As of 23 May 2019, it is the 9th highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2019.