Karan Johar on Varun, Alia, and Sidharth

On the podcast, when asked how he met the three youngsters, Karan revealed the story and also added that he never treated the three like newcomers. “I won’t lie. For me, it was just that I told my team – Siddharth and Varun, these two were my assistants, and I met Alia for the first time when she came from school. And when I launched them, I told everyone on the set, the choreographer, the production, the designer, to treat these three like megastars,” he said.

Karan said that the crew asked for clarity, and he explained why he asked this of them. “They asked what it meant. I said, ‘If you give them that confidence, they will face the camera like stars. If you treat them like newcomers, they will give you the performance of newcomers.’ And they performed like stars. And all of them call me ‘Karna’. They are like my friends. We did a 12-day workshop, and we four were together to get to know each other,” added the filmmaker.

About Student of the Year

Released in 2012, Student of the Year is a teen sports drama that marked the acting debut of all three actors – Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, and Sidharth Malhotra. The film was a box office success, earning over ₹100 crore. All three actors went on to have successful Bollywood careers post the film. A sequel – starring Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday, and Tara Sutaria – was released in 2019.