Shanaya Kapoor plays twins in SOTY: After Dark on Nov 13

JioHotstar has released the trailer for Student of the Year: After Dark, and the campus franchise is stepping out of its comfort zone. The show is a murder mystery in which Shanaya Kapoor makes her OTT debut by playing twin sisters: Aayesha Malik, a popular student found dead, and Aditi, the twin who refuses to treat the death as an accident.

To find answers, Aditi enters St. Teresa’s and joins the Student of the Year competition. That is the core twist: the contest is no longer the prize, it is the investigation. Every friend, rival and hidden secret inside the campus becomes a possible clue.

Why the double role matters

For Shanaya Kapoor, this is both a streaming debut and a first double role. She said the sisters may look alike but are very different in personality and choices, and described the experience as “challenging and rewarding.” The darker storyline was the draw. In a statement, she said the project takes a much-loved franchise into “unexpected and new territory,” where the stakes go beyond winning a title.

Director Reema Maya has framed the series as “grit, angst and heart.” She said she wanted to explore how the need to succeed can become all-consuming, destroying friendships and even the competitor. Her characters are young, ambitious, flawed and “certainly not above suspicion.”

Cast, crew and release date

• Streaming home: JioHotstar, exclusively
• Premiere: November 13, 2026
• Director: Reema Maya
• Production: Dharmatic Entertainment
• Also starring: Abhinav Singh, Divik Sharma, Manya Grover, Deeya Damani, Adi Malik, Sheeba Chaddha and Vivek Gomber

Why this matters for SOTY fans

The Student of the Year world stays familiar, but the tone is darker. This version keeps the setting and the contest while swapping the focus from winning a title to uncovering a death. That is a calculated franchise pivot: old fans get a familiar world, and new viewers get a whodunit with a clear structural hook.

The supporting cast is built for suspicion. Sheeba Chaddha and Vivek Gomber bring dramatic weight, while the younger ensemble around Aditi gives the campus a sense of shared history and rivalry. The mystery format means viewers will be watching every conversation for what is not said.

There is also a meta layer for the franchise. Moving from a popular competition story to a crime story asks audiences to re-examine what the Student of the Year title is worth. The show’s title, After Dark, signals that this is not about daylight romance but about what happens after the campus lights dim.

If the format works, it could open the door to more genre reinventions of familiar Bollywood properties. For now, mark November 13 on JioHotstar.

Source: bollywoodHungama.com

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#Bollywood series#Dharmatic Entertainment#JioHotstar#OTT releases#Reema Maya#Shanaya Kapoor#Student of the Year After Dark