These days, when a trailer or a song drops on YouTube, watching the video is only half the fun. The other half is scrolling past the credits, past the subscribe button, straight down to the comments section. And if those responses are mixed? Best believe everyone is devouring them, one after another.
When the trailer for Student of the Year: After Dark dropped, offering a first look at the film franchise-turned-streaming show, the comment section was scattered like confetti. Some viewers were excited, some were sceptical, and a good number had already decided what the show was: Riverdale (2017) meets 13 Reasons Why (2017) with a little Squid Game (2021) thrown in.
Asked about these comparisons, the cast of Student of the Year: After Dark had a lot to say.
The JioHotstar series, directed by Reema Maya and produced by Dharmatic Entertainment, reimagines Karan Johar's campus franchise as a murder mystery. Shanaya Kapoor plays twins Aayesha Malik, St. Teresa's queen bee who is found dead, and Aditi, who enters the school's Student of the Year contest to find out what happened.
Ahead of the November 13 premiere, Kapoor sat down with co-stars Divik Sharma, Manya Grover, Abhinav Singh, Adi Malik and Deeya Damani to talk trailer discourse, the price of a trophy, and which Bollywood classic deserves the after-dark treatment next.
Comparisons to Riverdale, Squid Game and More
When asked about the comparisons made to shows like Riverdale and Squid Game, Adi Malik is happy to take the compliment. "They're all big shows. So, in that regard, it does flatter us," he says. He is just as quick to add that the series is "its own thing", and very different from the two films it follows.
Kapoor has been here before. With Tu Yaa Main (2026), she, co-star Adarsh Gourav and director Bejoy Nambiar heard "remake, remake, remake", until audiences found a first half that looked nothing like the original.
"I think there’s always going to be comparisons," she says. "But I think that the Internet sometimes can get a little chaotic. It's very easy and very quick to say, oh, it looks like this, it looks like that."
Audiences, she says, haven't seen a Baby Doll or a Tara before (referring to characters on the show) and this is director Maya's first long-format project, so it deserves a fair chance before anyone jumps to conclusions.
The cast also notes that their generation grew up watching American television, and that this is a show they can finally call their own. "Maybe, hopefully, this can be something which can go global," Deeya Damini says.
The Cost of Winning
If the 2012 film was about the dream of winning, the makers say After Dark is about what winning costs. So, what does it cost a generation chasing rank lists, follower counts and foreign universities? For Manya Grover, the risk is losing yourself. "It's very easy to start comparing, to start looking for external validation," she says. The fix, as she sees it, has to come from within.
Kapoor sees the same pressure from a different angle. In all the noise, she says, it is easy to keep saying yes, whether out of intimidation, a need to fit in, or the belief that every yes is a step forward. Her advice is to be honest with yourself. “It’s okay to say no. If it feels true to you, say no,” she says.
Fans of the films will spot familiar types at St. Teresa's: the rich kid, the dean's son, the middle-class outsider. The difference, the cast says, is that a series has the episodes to dig into them. Every character, they add, has something at stake in the race for the trophy, and none of it is "a bed of roses".
A Bollywood Classic, Gone Dark?
If the Student of the Year franchise can go dark, what else could? The cast had ideas.
One went straight to Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and a popular fan theory that Anjali killed Tina, which drew an instant verdict from the room: “That’s so dark!” Another pitched Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) with the road trip interrupted by a kidnapping. One more suggested flipping the idea entirely and taking a dark film into the light.
Rapid Fire with the cast:
Guilty pleasure show? Real Housewives of New York, Schitt's Creek and Friends!
Team Rohan or team Abhimanyu from Student of the Year (2012)?:
Team Abhimanyu. “I’m team Shanaya always,” Kapoor chimes in!
One thing they loved about Student of the Year 2?
The song "Jatt Ludhiyane Da".
A film or show that kept them up after dark?
Under the Banner of Heaven (2022), Defending Jacob (2020) and the French film Mads (2024).
Whether After Dark earns its own spot on that list, viewers can decide for themselves when the series streams on JioHotstar from November 13.