Student Of The Year : After Dark Director Reema Maya Shrugs Off Shanaya Kapoor Nepotism Backlash

Scouting a fresh, daring take for the franchise's third installment, Karan Johar, Dharmatic Entertainment, and JioHotstar brought Sundance-nominated filmmaker Reema Maya on board to reinvent the Student of the Year universe. Shanaya Kapoor leads an ensemble of the rewired third outing that's now a murder mystery.

When asked about the nepotism surrounding Shanaya Kapoor's casting, Reema Maya told NDTV, "I met her without any such context. For me, she was like just any other actor that was trying to play a part in my show. The expectations were exactly the same. Nothing changed because of the family that she came from. Everyone for me was the same. Honestly, there was full support from Mr Johar for the entire casting palette."

She nudged Shanaya directly to grasp her perspective, age group, and mindset, applying the exact same standard across the board. "It's a process that I followed with all my actors. It's exciting to see that all of them came with so much of zeal, drive. They wanted to prove themselves. They wanted to push their limits," Maya noted.

Reema Maya Praises Shanaya

Discussing her experience directing Shanaya, Reema highlighted the thorough preparation involved in a Pinkvilla interview, “And it was the same process with Shanaya also; it was a lot of in-depth conversations, and it was a lot of clear separation between who Aditi is, who Ayesha is, what motivates each character, what their life history has been so far till they reach the point that the show is set in, what their interpersonal dynamics have been, and why Aditi is the way she is, why does she dresses the way she does, talks the way she does, feels the way she does.”

She further underlined that they developed the roles as distinct individuals rather than simple iterations of one person, praising Shanaya's dedication and background study. “Similarly, for Ayesha and we pretty much treated them as two separate characters and I think Shanaya worked really hard. She was very prepared,” Reema remarked.

Karan Johar introduced new talent to Bollywood in 2012 with Student Of The Year, launching Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan—both hailing from film dynasties, alongside Sidharth Malhotra. This penchant for casting star kids persisted in the sequel (2019), which featured Tiger Shroff and Ananya Panday alongside debutante Tara Sutaria.

Reema Maya has had two short films, the Kani Kusruti-starrer Counterfeit Kunkoo (2018) and Nocturnal Burger (2023), premiering at the Sundance Film Festival.