Rahasya

Synopsis

The film revolves around the story of an 18-year-old girl, Ayesha Mahajan (Sakshi Sem), who is murdered in her own house. Her father Dr. Sachin Mahajan (Ashish Vidyarthi) is deemed the prime suspect for the murder.

CBI Officer Sunil Paraskar (Kay Kay Menon) picks up the case and soon finds evidence that makes it more difficult to determine who exactly is responsible for Ayesha's death. He investigates role of Ayesha's father Dr. Sachin Mahajan (Ashish Vidyarthi), mother, Dr. Aarti Mahajan (Tisca Chopra), maid Remi (Ashwini Kalsekar) and determines the truth.

Cast

Production

It was initially reported that Gupta loosely based the film's story on the Noida Double murder case and he was quoted as stating that "The case gives a classic premise for an Agatha Christie kind of murder mystery, which would keep the audience guessing and hooked. Plus, there's the emotional quotient of the parents being accused of murdering their only daughter, something that the Indian audience has always felt for." Shooting for the film completed prior to the verdict announcement and Gupta stated that he was not using the film to "pass a verdict" on anyone involved with the case. The production, along with two similar proposed films by different filmmakers, was met with some criticism by the Talwar family, who stated that they would seek legal recourse against any media adaptation of the murder case. Gupta later responded to this by stating that the film was intended to be a complete work of fiction and that he did not use any of the real names of people involved with the murder. He went on to say that the film would center upon a CBI investigator trying to uncover the truth of his daughter's murder and that he had never definitively stated that Rahasya would be based on the Aarushi murder case.

Rahasya was issued a U/A certificate by the Censor Board in January 2014 and they deemed that the film was dissimilar to the murder case. The Talwar family initially requested permission to screen Rahasya before it released to the general public and upon receiving no response from Gupta or the production company, filed a case against the film stating that they felt that it would potentially distort facts about their daughter's death. The case was settled through the Bombay high court, where it was decided that one member of the Talwar family would screen the film but would not disclose to any outlet how the film ended. After the screening an advocate for the Talwar family filed a request for a stay of the film's release, stating that although the censor board had deemed that the film and the murder case were not similar that there were "over 100 similarities" that were not listed on the affidavit.