Karan Johar’s mentee, Siddharth Malhotra, speaks about his walk to fame

“I came to Mumbai to be an actor,” says Bollywood fresh-face, Siddharth Malhotra. The young actor has been grabbing a lot of attention lately with his first big-screen appearance hitting cinema screens. The film, Student of the Year, has been well-received by the audiences and is a Karan Johar directorial venture. Before starring in Karan Johar’s campus romance, Siddharth worked as a model in Delhi and later on moved to Mumbai to audition for a film that however failed to take off. “I was modeling in Delhi with my agency and then came to Mumbai for a film to be directed by Anubhav Sinha after Cash,” said Siddharth Malhotra. “It was being produced by Adlabs. My parents were surprised and I had to show them my contract but luckily that film never took off. Then Anubhav started Ra.One. That's when I thought to stay back and try a bit out in the B-town.”

After this, Siddharth moved on to work as an assistant director to Karan Johar for the film My Name is Khan. “If it wasn't for the money I earned from my first producers for the film that didn't take off, I wouldn't have been here in Mumbai. That had to happen for me to come here. For me to try, I had to know how the film fraternity functions. So that's where assisting came up and I got My Name Is Khan.”

In the film Student of the Year, Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) and Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt) are dating. In the midst of it all, Abhimanyu Singh (Siddharth Malhotra), the new kid at school, falls in love with Shanaya and befriends Rohan, resulting in a love triangle. The school is presided over by Dean Yogendra Vasisht (Rishi Kapoor), a gay and eccentric individual who organizes the annual Student of the Year competition, which forms the film’s basic premise.