Yesterday's students, today's stars: Celebrating 10 years of 'Student of the Year'

Student Of the Year (SOTY) clocked 10 years on Wednesday and to mark the special occasion, its director, Karan Johar, poured his heart out in an extensive social media post on Instagram.

The film, which was a coming-of-age romantic comedy, starred Alia Bhatt, Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. It marked the now renowned actors’ Bollywood debuts and continues to be celebrated, irrespective of the response it received back in the day.

Posting a throwback video which features snippets from the film alongside iconic dialogues of all its lead characters, Johar opened up about what SOTY means to him. "Student of The Year, to me, is a celebration of everything I love about cinema; the youth, the zest, the zing, the music, the energy, the comic timing. Everything I have ever loved about Hindi cinema is a part of SOTY. It's very cliched to say that we are one happy family because we never really are. Since everyone is screaming and trying to get work done. But this felt like I was an old student in high school."

In his note, Johar wrote, "SOTY started of as me making a ‘holiday film’... A film that certainly wasn't intended to move any cinematic mountains but a film that was young, fun and entertaining... What I didn't realise then, was that this film would give me so much more than memories or a commercial success. It would give so much more than a film in my directorial archives. This film gave me three of my most defining relationships."

The filmmaker wrote about how he found a family in Malhotra, Dhawan and Bhatt through the film, adding, "Sid, Varun and Alia went on to become my family besides my mom. They are the three people I think I talk to every single day. I never knew back then that I would have children of my own but my first protective parental feeling was for all three of them. I love you, Sid! I love you Varun and I love you, Alia.” The filmmaker then quipped, “Yes, yes, I know I am not supposed to keep saying that but what the heck? Love is love. I say it to my kids and I want to say it to all three of you...Love you to the moon and back."

Getting nostalgic, he shared some pictures with all three actors in another post with a heart-warming caption, giving subtle nods to Bhatt, Malhotra and Dhawan’s blockbusters. "Down the years with my students of every year! So proud of their cinema journey! It’s no Raaz(i) that they have mastered the ABCD of their craft and emerged as Shershaahs of goodness and talent! Love you!"