What If...

Yogendra Vashishtha (Rishi Kapoor), the former, retired dean of St Teresa High School has suffered from a fatal heart attack and is on his deathbed at a hospital, where the high school alumni gather in Dehradun. The movie is told in haphazard flashbacks alternating between the past and present. At the esteemed, prestigious St. Teresa's school a decade ago, Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) is a wealthy, popular student and younger son of its trustee, Ashok Nanda, an influential business tycoon. While Rohan aspires to be a musician and guitarist, his father Ashok dislikes Rohan's passion for music and wants him to follow in the footsteps of his elder brother, Ajay and join the family business to become a businessman. Rohan is dating Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt), a beautiful, rich, fashionable and popular, yet arrogant and snobby girl who feels increasingly dissatisfied and discontented with Rohan's constant flirtatious behavior particularly toward her rival Tanya Israni (Sana Saeed). Abhimanyu "Abhi" Singh (Sidharth Malhotra), a handsome new student from a lower-class family, transfers to St. Teresa's on a track scholarship. Abhi is an orphan whose grandmother is the only person he truly loves. Ambitious and driven, Abhi (who wants to achieve great heights of success and prosperity to prove himself with hard work) idolizes Ashok and sees success at St. Teresa's as a path to upward mobility. He becomes the college's heartthrob, much to Rohan's chagrin. Rohan takes an instant dislike towards Abhi, as they are both alpha males & not soon after both are competing in college over pretty much everything. Rohan starts playing practical pranks on teachers & blames it on Abhimanyu. Despite being initially at odds with each other after getting off on the wrong foot, on one such occasion, Rohan is close to being caught, when Abhi owns up to the prank & takes the punishment. Rohan warms up to Abhi and introduces him to Shanaya, who is already impressed with Abhi's all-round abilities. Rohan warns Abhi not to ruin their rapport, Abhi assures Rohan that he has no romantic interest in Shanaya, although he gradually finds himself drawn close to her and he secretly pines for her. Yogender announces the Student of The Year competition which will allow the winner to study at an Ivy League college. The competition is sponsored by Ashok Nanda (Ram Kapoor), Rohan's father, who is also the biggest donor to the college. At a soccer game, Abhi sets up the winning goal but allows Rohan to score it. This makes Rohan the hero, but it was clearly Abhi who had won the game for the team. Many believe that Abhi did this to befriend Rohan, who becomes impressed and congratulates Abhi. After winning the soccer game, both Abhi and Rohan (now in each other's good books) finally start hanging out together at nightclub parties and introduce each other to their families. Despite coming to respect each another on speaking terms, their gamesmanship battle of the wits rivalry still persists. Rohan keeps flirting with other girls in front of Shanaya, hurting her feelings. Although hesitant at first, Abhi consoles Shanaya. He encourages her to flirt with other boys as well to make Rohan jealous. At Ajay's wedding, Shanaya convinces Abhi to fake flirt with her to make Rohan jealous. In the fake flirting, Abhi starts falling for Shanaya, who gets her result by getting close to Rohan, causing Abhi to feel lonely and left out as the third wheel odd man out. Yogendra commences the Student of the Year competition, which causes Rohan & Abhi to compete for the trophy at all costs. The cutthroat tournament creates cracks in Abhi & Rohan's friendship, which becomes filled with a ribbing rivalry banter. After advancing through the initial two rounds, which consist of passing a written exam and searching for clues in a scavenger treasure hunt culminating in ringing a bell, Abhi's grandmother Sadhna (Farida Jalal) has a heart attack & Shanaya decides to visit her in the hospital, where Shanaya gets closer to Abhi & even starts to reciprocate his feelings for her. Abhi's grandmother eventually dies before the dance contest. After her death, Shanaya helps Abhi cope and the two share a kiss in a tender moment, feeling attracted to each other, only for Rohan to catch both of them red handed and berate the two of them for cheating behind his back. Enraged and feeling betrayed, Rohan coldly breaks up with Shanaya and angrily burns his bridges with Abhi and his longtime friend Jeet Khurana (Sahil Anand) after Jeet asks Shanaya out to be his partner. Later that evening, Rohan goes home to sulk, and after another blowout with his parents, his father Ashok disowns him. Rohan furiously becomes hellbent to win the Student of the Year trophy for himself at all costs. Rohan's dad has never supported Rohan's dream to become a guitarist, & he is very impressed with the clarity of thought within Abhi. He openly ridicules Rohan & supports Abhi to win the trophy. Shanaya and her best friend Shruti Pathak (Manasi Rachh) also fall out over the competition. Shanaya, conflicted by her feelings, leaves in the middle of the dance contest. As a result, she gets herself eliminated from the competition, while Rohan, Abhi, Jeet and Shruti proceed to the final round. At the final round, a triathlon consisting of swimming, cycling and long-distance footrace, Abhi and Rohan are neck-and-neck while sprinting across the racetrack. At the home stretch a few hundred yards away from the finish line, however, Abhi unexpectedly slows down, resulting in Rohan crossing the finish line first with Abhi as the runner-up, much to Abhi's indifference. Abhi dejectedly slips away as Rohan is crowned the winner, to his father's disdain chagrin. Knowing that Abhi threw the race & deliberately let him win. Rohan refuses to accept the trophy from Yogender at the awards ceremony, citing personal reasons. After Rohan steps down, Yogi is harshly berated by Rohan and Abhi's mutual friend Kaizad "Sudo" Sodabottleopenerwala (Kayoze Irani), who rants about how the entire annual competition has always been rigged from the start. He claims the competition broke their friendship of two years and was unfair to people like him, who were not as popular and attractive as Abhi or Rohan. This causes Yogi to retire. The students soon graduate and lose contact with each other. A decade later, Yogi, terminally ill and on his deathbed, requests a reunion to see his former students from his last batch. Some arrive to meet him, along with former soccer coach Karan Shah (Ronit Roy), and hold themselves responsible for the lively Dean's falling ill. Ro is now a rock musician, and Abhi is now an investment banker married to Shanaya. They awkwardly run into each other when they return to visit Yogi. The reunion triggers unresolved tensions between Abhi and Rohan, particularly over the events of the competition. In an acrimonious shouting match at daggers drawn which starts off over their shared history and conduct with Shanaya, the duo begin venting out the friction that they have repressed for the last decade. Rohan is incensed at what he considers an intentional move on Abhi's part to lose the triathlon. Abhi ultimately reveals he intentionally lost the triathlon and allowed Rohan to win after noticing Ashok was happy to see his son falling behind, and it was Abhi's way of surpassing Ashok in stature. The two men's animosity mellows into in a jocular, ribbing banter, much like in college. Abhi and Rohan finally reconcile, rekindling their friendship. Yogi apologizes to his former students and dies at peace, content at having reunited his students. Shortly after Yogi's death, Rohan takes Abhi to an empty open soccer field for a rematch. The film concludes with Rohan and Abhi amicably and playfully racing across the college grounds, echoing their past, knowing that despite their differences, nothing can ruin their friendship.