Mumbai, Nov 23 (IANS): Director-producer Karan Johar, who hosts popular streaming chat show ‘Koffee With Karan’, revealed that actors Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan were not in favour of casting actress Alia Bhatt in their debut film ‘Student of the Year’ (2012).

Varun and Sid appeared on the latest episode of the streaming chat show, and had a gala time. KJo, while trying to break through in the conversations, dominated by the two actors, spilled beans that they told him not to cast Alia as they were not very confident over her choice as the female lead of the high school drama.

During the episode, KJo said: "I remember the first time she walked and both of you messaged me saying, 'Karan you can't cast her'. One of you said she was too young. But after that we did a photoshoot with her three months later, I knew from that frame that she would lead my film. She stood quiet and didn't look at either of you. Either she was conscious or shy."

During the episode, Sid also took a dig at Karan about how hard the director was with him and Varun during the making of 'Student of the Year' which served as a debut vehicle for Sid, Varun and Alia. Varun said in jest that Karan was very strict in terms of what his 'Student of the Year' actors were having for calorie intake as the film being a high school musical required the three debutants to look a certain way.

Varun revealed: "We had a very rationed food coming to us. Karan was not letting us eat.”

Sid quipped: "Our budget was cut from our food first. I didn't drink water.”

Varun said: "Yeah, I remember you were so dehydrated," which led to the two actors saying in unison that this happened twice.

Sid had the final word as he went on to say: "It was child labour."

Looking at how his 'students' outplayed the guru himself and put him in a spot with their chemistry and timing, a completely aghast Karan could only said: "What rubbish" as the three of them had a hearty laugh.