The school competition franchise that Karan Johar started with Student of the Year in 2012 was taken forward by its sequel that released on May 10. Although the template remained the same, the competition was shown at the college level this time. While Tiger Shroff and the debutantes Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria could not impress critics with their acting skills, one person who has managed to shine through the glitzy world of St. Teresa is Aditya Seal.
Taking on Tiger in the competition and giving him a hard time on screen, Aditya looked quite convincing as Manav Randhawa. The first film did not have an out-and-out villain. Aditya was given the chance to be the suave bad guy in the sequel and he grabbed it with both hands. With the focus mostly on Tiger and the two debutantes, Aditya wasn't seen much during the film's promotions. The novelty factor has mostly worked in his favour.
"They had to do something different from the previous film. I felt that Dharma was keeping me on the down-low as they wanted to keep me as the surprise package, which I think worked in their favour and mine. Keeping Manav as the surprise package made sense. The number of messages I am getting on Instagram, I am quite overwhelmed," says Aditya.
The later part of the film is focused mostly on Tiger and Aditya, and the two main contenders for the Dignity Cup. "When I read the script I did feel that competing for that one title, it was basically me and Tiger. I knew that a lot is going to ride on both of us and the competition," admits Aditya.
Aditya made headlines recently because of his comments in reaction to the criticism that the world shown in Student of the Year 2 was far from reality. It was reported that he thinks it is unfair that people praise films like Avengers Endgame, but hate his film for being unrealistic.
He says that he wasn’t drawing a comparison between Avengers and Student of the Year 2. "I was misquoted. I had said that people are giving us flak that 'aise colleges hote nahi hain.' There was no comparison between Avengers and SOTY2. I said, that in Avengers, they take you into a world that doesn't exist, but you believe it because it looks beautiful. Here, nowhere have we said that this is a true story. This a different world and you would want to be part of a school like this because it is fabulous. That the inference that I derived. I don't know why people started comparing Avengers and SOTY2, it's so bizarre. I am having a hearty laugh," Aditya says.
The Student of the Year franchise has been a launch vehicle for star-kids as well as new talents from outside Bollywood. Aditya says that being an outsider has worked in his favour, since expectations are much lesser. "Not being from the industry worked in my favour because there are a lot less expectations from me. And then when something like Manav happens and people are pleasantly surprised, it works way better for me."
Aditya started his acting career way back in 2002 with Ek Chhotisi Love Story, as a teenager infatuated by his much-older neighbour, played by Manisha Koirala. After that, he went on a break for some years before returning to films.
"My father said that acting is not a stable profession and you need to have an education as well. So it was a conscious decision. It was better to take a little sabbatical, work on yourself, train yourself and take the plunge when you have to," he says.
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