Hate Story

Plot

Kavya Krishna (Paoli Dam) and her best friend, Vicky, pull an anti-operation against one of the biggest business tycoons, which happens to be Siddharth Dhanrajgir's company. They take pictures of a few black-business deals and write an article that gets published. Siddharth, being a rich and cocky tycoon, wants revenge, so he calls Kavya up for coffee. He offers her a job in his company with a three hundred percentage raise in income, and Kavya accepts his offer immediately. They go on a business trip together, and Kavya helps Siddharth get his company a good deal. That night, Siddharth takes Kavya to dinner, where they both connect romantically and end up having sex. Upon returning, Kavya meets Vicky and gives him the gifts she got for him and says 'I love my job'. An upset Vicky is silent and sad, but does not show his feelings.

The next day, Kavya goes to work and finds out that her entry pass to the office has been cancelled. She goes to talk to Siddharth, who arrogantly talks about his plan and pulls a gun out, tortures her, and says that he never had any feelings for her; he just wanted revenge for the sting operation she pulled. He tells her that he punishes people who mess with him, and tells her to get out of his office. Heartbroken, Kavya leaves and applies for another job, with Vicky's support. While Vicky is dropping her, she runs out of the car and vomits. He takes her to the doctor, only to find out that she is now pregnant.

Kavya immediately meets Siddharth again, and he once again humiliates her, but she informs him that she is pregnant and says that she can prove that it's Siddharth's child (through DNA testing). That night, Siddharth calls her and pretends to be sorry for what happened. Kavya immediately runs to meet him. He has her kidnapped, her fetus killed, her ovaries taken out, and then dumps her. Kavya becomes a sex worker and sleeps with many important Cementec's employees to get to Siddharth. First she contacts the CEO of Cementec, Rajdev Singh, sleeps with him and without his knowledge copies email from his phone. From there she comes to know that Cementec is going to do a joint venture with a German company due to which all shares of Delhi Cements company will fall. She leaks this information to Delhi Cements Chairman at the cost of ₹ 40 million. She reveals this to Siddharth and challenges him that she will destroy him. Siddharth then has cameras placed all over her house without her knowledge but Kavya comes to know after spotting a camera when she notices that her furniture had been rearranged. Kavya uses this weapon against him by inviting Rajdev to her home and seducing him. Knowing that Siddharth is viewing the footage, Kavya is able to entice Rajdev for more information regarding Cementec's future operations and scams, while in return, providing him with false information regarding Cementec's competitors. Siddharth views this footage and comes to know that Rajdev is responsible for the leaking of information by Kavya. Siddharth also comes to believe the false information provided by Kavya regarding his competitors to be true, resulting in Cementec suffering a loss of ₹ 100 billion. Siddharth has Rajdev killed and puts the blame Cementec's downfall on Kavya by showing fake evidences, resulting in her arrest. Kavya takes Cabinet minister's help to escape from jail by blackmailing him. She also offers to sleep with him at the cost of recovering the police file which contains her name and nominating her to the post of director of IIBI bank which holds accounts details of Cementec. After becoming the board member of Cementec, Kavya asks for balance sheets, all files access and all accounts passwords for tally. She goes through all papers with the help of Vicky and comes to know that Cementec has done a big scam. Kavya exposes this scam in the Annual General Meeting of Cementec. Finally Siddharth is arrested for stealing millions from share holders. Kavya goes back to her own house to get the watch gifted to her by Vicky. There she finds Rajdev's wife waiting for her with a gun. Rajdev's wife shoots Kavya thinking that she killed her husband. After killing Kavya she shoots herself too. The movie ends with Kavya's background voice saying, "Mare hue log kabar se nahi dara karte, Vicky...".(Dead people are not scared of Grave, Vicky...)

Cast

Censorship

Before the release of the film, the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) ordered the sex scenes in the movie to be reduced by 50%, dialogues were left untouched. Vikaram Bhatt has praised the censors and was quoted to have said - . "The censor board has been great. They've passed all the dialogues and only got us to cut the excesses in the love-making scenes. I'm extremely pleased with their progressive thinking". One sex scene that was cut in particular can be viewed in the trailer, although no uncut version of the film is available via home entertainment.

Critical reception

It opened to mixed reviews. Subhash K. Jha of IANS has given 3.5 out of 5 Stars by saying "'Hate Story' is a most riveting and aesthetic saga of a woman's revenge against the man.". Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film a score of 3 out of 5 and said, "On the whole, HATE STORY banks on the age-old vendetta theme, but what takes it beyond the mediocre mark is the cat and mouse game played by the protagonist and antagonist, besides, of course, the bold and provocative scenes that add spice to the proceedings. Though engaging in parts, there's no denying that the second hour seizes your attention, making it a watchable experience.". Srijana Mitra Das for The Times of India has given 3 out of 5 stars and says "'So, yeah, Hate Story exposes a lot - underneath Delhi's surface, that is, not really, as the adverts so tantalizingly showcased, of leading lady Paoli Dam. The film instead blows the top right off the dirty deals, the, well, intercourse between different power spheres ruling India's capital - business, politics, journalism, police, all meet in this slick flick. Depending on who you are, the intersections provide some pleasure - and lots of pain."

Raja Sen for Rediff.com has given 1.5/5 stars and says "Despites its bold promos, Hate Story offers very little skin show.".

Soundtrack

The film features background score composed by Amar Mohile and songs composed by Harshit Saxena.

Box office

The film's total nett gross was ₹12.01 crore and was declared "Average" by the Box Office India.

Sequel

A sequel, entitled Hate Story 2 released on 18 July 2014. The film stars Surveen Chawla, Jay Bhanushali and Sushant Singh in the lead roles. Its third sequel is Hate Story 3, starring Sharman Joshi, Zarine Khan, Karan Singh Grover and Daisy Shah. It was released in December 4, 2015. Both sequels were commercially successful.