Mumbai / Dostana 2: Karan Johar introduces Lakshya as sequel’s third lead after Kartik Aaryan, Janhvi Kapoor

Filmmaker Karan Johar will bring a new face to Dostana 2. On Thursday, Karan introduced actor Lakshya, who will make his debut with the sequel. He will star alongside Kartik Aaryan and Janhvi Kapoor in the film.

Sharing pictures of Lakshya on social media, Karan wrote: “Both happy and excited to introduce the new kid on the Dharma block! LAKSHYA will be making his debut with us in #DOSTANA2 and from thereon, we hope to start a solid cinematic journey together! Please welcome #Lakshya and shower him with all your love and blessings...”

Both happy and excited to introduce the new kid on the Dharma block! LAKSHYA will be making his debut with us in #DOSTANA2 and from thereon, we hope to start a solid cinematic journey together! Please welcome #Lakshya and shower him with all your love and blessings... pic.twitter.com/zEgxX8a7V4

— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) September 5, 2019

Karan tweeted to add that Lakshya does not have any film industry connections. He wrote: “Yes I woke up to several inquiries asking about his film industry connections!!! He is NOT from the business and went through a legit audition process !! Am grateful to Shanoo Sharma for introducing LAKSHYA to @DharmaMovies.” Karan has often been accused of promoting nepotism in the past.

Dostana was a Karan Johar production, which stared Priyanka Chopra, John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan. The film was a hit but it came under fire for the manner in which a gay relationships had been portrayed onscreen.

Dostana 2 will see Kartik and Janhvi together for the first time onscreen. Both the actors are among the most sought-after actors in the industry today. While Kartik hit the limelight with hits like Pyar ka Punchnama series, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Luka Chuppi, Janhvi’s work in her debut film Dhadak, too, was appreciated. She is currently busy shooting for two films -- a biopic of Gunjan Saxena, an IAF pilot who played a significant role during the Kargil War, and Roohi Afza, a horror comedy with Rajkummar Rao.

Karan will soon return to direction with Takht, a multi-starrer featuring Vicky Kaushal, Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Bhumi Pednekar and Anil Kapoor. His last production, Kalank, another multi-starrer, was a disaster. Speaking about it to Rajeev Masand, Karan had said: “I think that the person responsible for (the failure of) Kalank is me and no one else. I was the leader of that team; the oldest member of that team; the person who should’ve known better. I was so carried away with my own story; I wanted to make this film 15 years ago, and it was a story that was very close to my father and he loved it and he went and researched it...I think I gave everybody unnecessary wings to fly. That is something I feel terrible about.”