Next month, Karan Johar is set to start directing Dharma Productions’ newest venture, Student of the Year. Unlike his previous films, this one will mark the debut of newcomers Siddharth Mahlhotra, Varun Dhawan, and Alia Bhatt. Rather than being apprehensive about this potential challenge, Karan is actually looking forward to the experience.
“More excited than nervous…Working with stars thrills me. This challenges me. After the experimental My Name is Khan, making a masala film with newcomers poses a challenge of its own,” Karan tells Subhash K. Jha. Student of the Year is Karan’s first film without Shah Rukh Khan.
The three newcomers have had some experience with the Hindi film industry. Varun and Alia are the children of director David Dhawan and film maker Mahesh Bhatt, respectively. Varun and Siddharth also worked as assistant directors on the sets of My Name is Khan.
Karan has high hopes for these fresh faces. “I feel they’ve humongous talent…Next summer I hope the audience discovers them to be as talented as I did,” he explains.
Student of the Year will hit production floors on August 16th. Have a look at the first poster!
