The road from youth to adulthood is paved with myriad emotions and Student Of The Year celebrates this colorful coming of age. It is the story of Abhimanyu Singh (Sidharth Malhotra) and Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) who traverse the path of competition, envy, triumph, failure, manipulation and heartbreak in their mini-universe of St. Teresas High School, Dehradun. Abhimanyu Singh a.k.a Abhi comes from a middle-class family and wants to achieve great heights of success and prosperity, the first step to which will be the Student of the Year trophy while Rohan Nanda a.k.a Ro, is the son of a business tycoon who grapples with a complex relationship with his father and knows that winning the Student Of the Year trophy will bag him the approval that he subconsciously craves for. When the two protagonists with distinct backgrounds and clear goals clash with each other in the locker room, football field and the canteen, there is no question in anyones mind that the preset equations of the St. Teresas campus were about to change.
When Abhi and Rohans rivalry takes an unexpected turn to friendship, neither pre-empts the complications that would brew. Things are further knotted up when Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt), the most popular girl on the campus enters the equation. While Shanaya and Rohan are childhood sweethearts, Abhis attraction for his best friends girlfriend and Shanayas quiet reciprocation causes a rift in their friendship that would have a long lasting impact. Looming large over the various friendships in the campus is the Student Of The year trophy and Dean Yogendra Vasishts (Rishi Kapoor) emphasis on success and victory. Towards the end of the term, the foes-turned-friends-turned foes, Abhi and Rohan, are ready for a face-off and battle lines are drawn through the length and breadth of the campus, with only one goal in everyones eyes - Student Of The Year Trophy. As new ambitions are born and old loyalties fall by the wayside, each segment of the Student Of The Year competition manages to tear apart both, the participants and the spectators, to redefine the choices of the three protagonists.
