Don’t Be Shy cast heads to college for first Gen-Z chat

The young cast of Don’t Be Shy is taking its first post-release conversation to a Mumbai college campus. Aarushi Bajaj, Piyush Khati, Bianca Arora and Ansh Duggal are set to meet students at Thakur College, where the audience will get something closer to a classroom chat than a standard press line.

A direct line to the Gen-Z audience

The event is built as an exchange between the film’s newcomers and the college crowd the story was made for. Students will first watch Don’t Be Shy, then interact with the four leads about their characters, their performances and the process of making a coming-of-age romantic comedy.

It also marks the cast’s first media-facing conversation since the film premiered, making Thakur College an unusual first stop. Instead of starting with the entertainment press, the team is starting with the viewers.

Who is in the room

• The leads: Aarushi Bajaj plays Shyamili ‘Shy’ Das, Piyush Khati plays Mayank, Bianca Arora plays Tara and Ansh Duggal plays Dhruv.
• The film: Don’t Be Shy, a Hindi coming-of-age romantic comedy that premiered worldwide on Prime Video on September 25, 2026.
• The director: Sreeti Mukerji makes her directorial debut and co-wrote the screenplay with Sehaj Kaur Maini.
• The producers: Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt back the project under Eternal Sunshine Productions.
• The supporting cast: Anurag Basu plays Shy’s father, with Neha Dhupia, Kunaal Roy Kapur and Anju Alva Naik in supporting roles.

Alia Bhatt also makes a cameo appearance in the song ‘Re Bawri’.

Why this event is worth watching

A coming-of-age rom-com depends on whether its core audience recognises itself in the characters and the awkward, funny moments on screen. Taking the cast to Thakur College puts the leads in a room with exactly the viewers the film is aimed at, and lets those viewers respond to the film before a journalist frames the conversation for them.

For the four young stars, the format also works as a gentle introduction to facing an audience. The questions are likely to come from their own age group, covering the roles they played and the experience of joining a project backed by Alia Bhatt and Shaheen Bhatt.

If the college Q&A lands well, it could become a useful template for other young-skewing releases after their digital premieres. The takeaway for fans is simpler: the first real chat about Don’t Be Shy is happening on campus, not in a studio.

Source: bollywoodHungama.com

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