`Student of the Year` to be Karan Johar`s shortest film

New Delhi: Filmmaker Karan Johar, who is known for his extensively narrated tales, says his newest outing `Student of the Year` is the shortest film he has made till date.

The duration of this campus film would be a little over two hours, while each of his earlier four directorial ventures have lasted for close to three hours or even more. "This is going to be the shortest film of my career. Though I am yet to arrive at the final cut, it should be around 135-140 minutes at maximum," said Johar. While `Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna` is Johar`s lengthiest film at 215 minutes, his last release `My Name Is Khan` (165 minutes) was his shortest so far. `Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham` was 211 minutes, while `Kuch Kuch Hota Hai` was 185 minutes long. The director is now trying to follow the current trend of making shorter films in Bollywood. "This is the current trend of making films and Karan has decided not to break that. His productions, which were not directed by him, have been of shorter duration as well and though it was tough for him to follow that for his own film, he has managed to do that," said a close associate of the director. "Student of the Year hasn`t been designed as a saga per se that requires an extended story to be told. Moreover, this is the first time Karan is working with newcomers. With superstars you can still hold audience for three hours but with newcomers it`s better to keep it short and simple," a senior crew member added. Commercially too it makes sense for a near two hour length as it allows the film a large number of shows in multiplexes, hence allowing bigger moolah. `Student of the Year`, starring newcomers Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra, is set to release on October 19. PTI