Hindi
Student Of The Year: A classic KJO fare
MUMBAI: Launching all new faces is a tricky business, especially in an era when opening day response and the first three day collections determine the fate of the film. Karan Johar is in a position to launch new faces but has wisely chosen to do so with a tried and tested formula instead of experimenting. In that, Student Of The Year, is about two friends, one rich and the other not so and there is a girl and, hence, an inevitable ‘friends turned foes‘ angle of interest in this school campus story.
Varun Dhawan is a rich man‘s son and as it happens in most such films, the school is bankrolled by his father, Ram Kapoor who spites his son because his ambition is to become a musician instead of joining Kapoor‘s empire. Dhawan has a steady girlfriend, Alia Bhatt, but that does not stop him from flirting with other girls. In walks Sidharth Malhotra, a sports scholarship student, an orphan living with his uncle, an always ready to insult aunt and a doting grandmother. Malhotra awes the students with his personality when he enters the campus. However, he will remain an outsider in a scene dominated by Dhawan unless he strikes a friendship with him. He makes the first move during a game of football and both, Dhawan and Malhotra, become thick friends.
The idea being to entertain, in-class clichés are spared and the film deals mainly with campus and sports arena.
Malhotra notices Bhatt‘s discomfort when Dhawan cosies up with another girl. Deciding to help her, he suggests she do exactly what Dhawan is doing that is to pretend to get close to someone else to make Dhawan jealous. For Bhatt who better than Malhotra himself since besides being close at hand, he is the best friend of Dhawan and hence safe for her! The ploy works and Bhatt gets her man back but the inevitable has happened; Malhotra has fallen for Bhatt in the process. Bhatt seems to have discovered new love too but she is not able to decide who she wants. Dhawan notices her bend towards Malhotra and friendship changes into enmity.
It is Student of the Year contest time but such a contest is no fun without rivalry; and for both the lads, what better opportunity to outdo other? Since this is cinema, dancing is a part of the contest (having a partner is must), others being IQ test and a multi event field contest where swimming, cycling and running follow back to back. The IQ test is won by the dumbest guy in the class who ticks each answer after chanting ‘Jai Mata Di‘. In his sinister way, Dhawan‘s father, Ram Kapoor wants Malhotra to win. As for Malhotra himself, he is on a sportsman‘s scholarship and, even in this five star school, athletics can‘t be won merely because one is rich. The Student of the Year trophy is in his grasp.
The film begins in a flashback as an impromptu reunion has happened of the students after ten years because their dean, Rishi Kapoor, is breathing his last and the students have come to see him. Malhotra, the underdog has realized his ambition of making millions and so has Dhawan by becoming a successful singer. These friends turned foes get into a fight and while exchanging blows, till they realize that they were never really enemies.
What is good about Student Of The Year is that, it introduces three new faces thus lending the film freshness. Though a single location film, director Johar has given the film all the gloss and finesse thus making it visually pleasant. The supporting cast has been selected very well avoiding stereotypes. Dialogue is simple yet peppered with ample wit; melodrama or mush of any sort is avoided in dialogue as well as in the proceedings. Cinematography catches all the gloss aptly. This is a patent Johar film alright. The film has foot tapping songs and using remixed old songs goes very well with the viewer. Radha….., Ratta Maar….., Vele…. all have popular appeal.
Malhotra and Dhawan are good at what a film actor would need today, good physic and competence in dancing besides being confident. Bhatt is petite and pretty, doll like. Rishi Kapoor as the gay dean of the school adds some lighter moments to the film. Ram Kapoor and Ronit Roy are okay. Kajol, Boman Irani, Farha Khan and Vaibhavi Merchant make flitting appearances.
Student Of The Year is fun while it lasts and having opened to a favourable response from the youth, it is a money-maker.
Shudra -The Rising: A pointless meandering bore
Shudra – The Rising is a film about the class system and attempts to depict the ill treatment and injustice meted out to the Shudras. The film chooses an undefined era where there is a settlement of these underprivileged and a local Thakur. While the film‘s promotional material shows a picture of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, the film or whatever is happening on the screen has no relevance to the great man.
In this settlement of Shudras, every person looks more than occupied doing something or the other. Their lot is supposed to wear a bone to mark them out, a bell to warn the upper cast of their being around, a utensil (handi) around their neck and tie a broom at the back to wipe the floor they walk on to remove their footprints. That having been established (which was depicted earlier more effectively in Ketan Mehta‘s 1980 much acclaimed Gujarati film, Bhavni Bhavai) the film just meanders around the plights of the lot.
Their problems arise when the local thakur spots a pretty face among the Shudras and orders her husband to drop her off at his haveli come evening. One such woman has been picked by the thakur and the film spends most of its footage in showing helplessness of the woman and her husband trying to elicit viewer sympathy but managing to get some yawns instead. Time to deliver the woman and the thakur‘s henchmen arrive to collect her. The resisting husband is beaten up bad to die ultimately.
The settlement decides to revolt. To avenge the murder of one of them, they kill the thakur‘s son. In retaliation, thakur lets his goons lose on the settlement to burn it down and kill every soul there.
What kind of rising is this and what is the maker trying to say? Is the film someone‘s idea of an intelligent film? Please, not with this kind of tripe.
Janleva 555: Lives up to its nameJanleva 555 could have been a 1940s film. It is about a love story of ichhadhari naagin, Kalpana Pandit, and her beau and the myth of such snakes.
Pandit along with her team is visiting a part of South India where many people die of snakebites for lack of instant treatment. But soon as they arrive at the location, strange things start happening to Pandit. The dreams of a snake she has been seeing since her childhood are now getting amplified. A bhairav or snake charmer wants to kill her. He is the same bhairav who killed her snake beau in the 15th century and has been waiting for her so that he can lay his hands on mani or a huge diamond which she has hidden before her death in that era!
In her reincarnation, Pandit used to dream of events of 15th century and was destined to come back to the same place. Her beau is still around in human form and acts as her protector from the bhairav. The bhairav wants the diamond because that will make him immortal. Isn‘t he immortal without it to be around since 15th century? What follows is a lot of nonsense stuff till a historian of some kind, Anant Nag, solves her puzzle; sad he can‘t help the audience. The surprising thing is that the film has been made by a doctor based in the US, the very same Pandit who also plays the female lead.
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
