Student of the Year: After Dark Trailer: Shanaya Kapoor Plays Twins in a Murder Mystery at St. Teresa’s

JioHotstar has unveiled the trailer of Student of the Year: After Dark, and it takes the franchise somewhere it has never been. Gone is the glossy campus romance of the earlier films. In its place is a murder mystery set in the same St. Teresa’s school, where ambition, rivalry and a suspicious death drive the story. The series streams from November 13, 2026, and marks Shanaya Kapoor’s OTT debut.

Kapoor plays a double role for the first time. She is Aayesha Malik, the school’s popular queen bee, whose body is found drowned and frozen in Barakhali Lake — and Aditi, her twin sister, who refuses to believe the death was an accident. Aditi infiltrates St. Teresa’s and enters the fiercely competitive Student of the Year contest, only to discover that her sister’s closest circle was also her toughest competition. To find the killer, she must rise to the top of a contest where everyone has something to hide. The trailer opens with an announcement welcoming students to the competition before the discovery of the body turns the mood dark, and it closes on the question at the heart of the show: was Aayesha’s death an accident, or was she caught in something larger?

The series is directed by Reema Maya and produced by Dharmatic Entertainment, the digital arm of Dharma Productions. The cast also includes Sheeba Chaddha as a grieving mother demanding answers from the authorities, alongside Divik Sharma, Manya Grover, Abhinav Singh, Deeya Damani, Adi Malik and Vivek Gomber. Kapoor has described playing the twins as one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of her career, noting that while the sisters look alike, they could not be more different in personality and choices. Maya, meanwhile, has pitched the show as “grit, angst and heart” — a story about what happens when the need to succeed becomes all-consuming.

Here is the Filmverse take: After Dark is the boldest franchise move Dharma has made in years, because it risks the brand itself. Student of the Year means glamour, dance numbers and star-making debuts — the 2012 original launched Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra, and the 2019 sequel did the same for Ananya Panday and Tara Sutaria. Turning that world into a murder mystery could alienate the nostalgic audience, but it is also the only way a third instalment avoids feeling like a retread. Kapoor’s double role is the real test: she must make two sisters distinct enough that the audience grieves one and roots for the other. If she pulls it off, this becomes her breakthrough. If not, the franchise’s gloss will be the only thing people remember.

Watch the official trailer here:

Sources: Bollywood Hungama, Variety India, Latestly (ANI)