‘Student of the Year: After Dark’: Reema Maya on turning a glossy college franchise into a murder mystery

Reema Maya and a still of Shanaya Kapoor from ‘Student of the Year: After Dark’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement It’s been over fourteen years since Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan exhibited charming resolve in Karan Johar’s college romance, Student of the Year (2012).With its glossy fixation on love and hyper-realistic competitive setup, the film returned with a rather forgettable sequel in 2019 with Tiger Shroff, Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria. Cut to now, the franchise is getting a new life as the famed St. Teresa College in the mountains turns grittier with the upcoming JioHotstar series, Student of the Year: After Dark, offering a complete reimagination.The latest installment is helmed by Reema Maya, who makes her streaming debut with the show. Reema is known for making stylised shorts steeped in urgent realism like Nocturnal Burger (2023) and Counterfeit Kunkoo (2017). SOTY: After Dark was entirely different than what she had worked on before. Naturally, she was surprised when Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment approached her to direct the show. “I was also curious to understand what they wanted to do with the show and why they thought I would be the right choice. Their answer was simple: they wanted me to take it and make it my own. It means a lot that Karan put faith in my vision,” says Reema, ahead of the show’s release on November 13. Published - November 12, 2026 05:38 pm IST