"It has not been an easy journey,” says Karan Johar’s protégé, Siddharth Malhotra

Siddharth Malhotra has pretty much grabbed the limelight with his debut in Karan Johar’s fifth directorial venture, Student of the Year. The newcomer made his debut in the film alongside fresh-faces Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt. Siddharth’s journey to the big-screen wasn’t a piece of cake however and the young actor did need to overcome a bunch of challenges to finally bag a big-budget dream debut.

Siddharth began his career as a model in Delhi. Here, he walked the runway for several Indian and international designers including Manish Arora, Manish Malhotra and Rohit Bal. He also made appearances for Roberto Cavalli and was featured on the covers of several magazines including RedBook, Men’s Health magazine and Gladrags. Siddharth then moved to Mumbai to audition for a film. The film however failed to take off and Siddharth began working as an assistant director to Karan Johar for the film My Name Is Khan.  "It has not been an easy journey. I started my career with modeling and then worked with Karan as an assistant director. At that time I had never imagined that he will cast me as a lead actor in his movie,” says Siddharth Malhotra.

Picking up on the youngster’s knack for the big-screen, Karan Johar cast him for a role in his film, Student of the Year. The film, a campus romance to be precise, hit cinema screens on the 19th of October and was extremely well-received by audiences, critics and Bollywood bigwigs, giving Siddharth Malhotra and his costars Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt a perfect launch to a long and fulfilling career in B-town.