Kangana Ranaut had called Karan Johar the "flag bearer of nepotism" on his show a couple of years ago. While that may or may not be true, what cannot be denied is that Johar's Dharma Productions launched Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt, both from prominent film families, with Student Of The Year (2012).
Seven years later, Johar is launching veteran actor Chunky Pandey’s daughter Ananya with Student Of The Year 2 (2019), along with VJ Tara Sutaria. The film stars Tiger, son of another veteran actor, Jackie Shroff, as the male lead. The trio today launched the 'Mumbai Dilli Di Kudiyaan' song in Mumbai.
A journalist pointed out at the event that the SOTY franchise has launched star kids and asked whether Dharma Productions should not also give chances to 'outsiders'.
“I think there are enough opportunities for all in the film industry," Tiger Shroff responded. "Especially the small screen is also opening up to a lot of talent — there is Netflix, Amazon — as well as big-screen films. If you are talented and do good work, then work comes to you. It’s as simple as that."
Shroff himself has been in the Hindi film industry for five years now. While he has his share of critics, the actor has delivered at the box office with hits like Heropanti (2014), Baaghi (2016) and Baaghi 2 (2018).
When Student Of The Year 2 was announced, there were murmurs that the film might feature two heroes and two heroines. Was the story tweaked once Shroff was signed on, director Punit Malhotra was asked.
Malhotra scoffed at such talk. "The story was always about this boy and his two love interests," he said. "When we were casting, the idea was to get Tiger on board. He was gracious enough to do it.”
Malhotra praised Shroff for the talent he brings to the film. “No one has the skill set that Tiger Shroff has. He single-handedly lifted the level of competition. More than his talent, it’s his hard work. If the shoot is at 5am, Tiger will be in the gym at 4 and ready for the shoot at 5. So we all had to pull up our socks,” the director said.
Student Of The Year 2 is set to be released on 10 May.