Student of the Year: After Dark: Shanaya Kapoor’s Murder-Mystery Twin Turn Arrives on JioHotstar on November 13

The Student of the Year franchise is trading its glitter for a crime scene. Student of the Year: After Dark, a six-episode Hotstar Specials series, streams on JioHotstar from November 13 — and it takes the familiar corridors of St. Teresa’s into murder-mystery territory for the first time.

Shanaya Kapoor makes her OTT debut in a double role, playing twin sisters Aayesha Malik and Aditi. Aayesha is the school’s queen bee; Aditi is the twin who must investigate her sister’s death when the competition for the Student of the Year title turns sinister. The trailer, released on October 27, opens with the discovery of Aayesha’s body and follows Aditi through a school where every friendship has a backstory and every rivalry has a motive. The series is directed by Reema Maya and produced by Karan Johar’s Dharmatic Entertainment, with Adar Poonawalla and Apoorva Mehta also producing.

The supporting cast mixes newcomers with seasoned names: Divik Sharma, Manya Grover, Abhinav Singh, Adi Malik and Deeya Damini lead the younger ensemble, with Sheeba Chaddha, Harsh Chhaya and Vivek Gomber on the adult side. The build-up has been steady: a new track, “Jo Bhi Hona Hai Ho Jayega”, by Chaar Diwaari and Samad Khan arrived on November 5 via Sony Music India, and Shanaya has called playing the twins one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of her career, admitting to pre-release nerves ahead of her streaming debut.

The pivot is the real story here. The original Student of the Year (2012) launched Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra on a wave of glossy campus romance; the 2019 sequel kept the same formula. After Dark keeps the school and the glamour but changes the genre entirely, inviting the comparisons to Riverdale and Elite that followed the trailer — and betting that a young audience raised on true crime will follow a franchise they grew up with into darker territory. The twin device is a smart one for a debut: it gives Shanaya two distinct characters to play in her first leading role, and it gives the mystery its engine, since the investigator and the victim share a face. November 13 is crowded — Itlu Arjuna arrives in theatres the same day — but a binge-ready mystery on JioHotstar is playing a different game entirely. Our report on the other November 13 release: https://filmverse.in/itlu-arjuna-trailer-jr-ntr-unveils-aniesh-anaswara-rajan-november-13/

Watch the official trailer below:

Student of the Year: After Dark premieres on JioHotstar on November 13, 2026.

Source: JioHotstar, Bollywood Hungama, Zoom TV and Wikipedia.