10 Years of Hate Story Throwback: “Usually in our films, it’s the male who has more inhibitions about stripping, kissing and love-making. There’s too much performance anxiety in the male” – Vivek Agnihotri

By Fenil Seta -

April 20, 2022 - 8:00 PM IST

Vivek Agnihotri is currently flying high due to the blockbuster success of his film, The Kashmir Files. 10 years ago, around this time, he had similarly tasted success, though not of epic proportions, with Hate Story. As the Vikram Bhatt-produced film completed 10 years on April 20, Bollywood Hungama decided to go down memory lane to remind readers about the craze that this film had unleashed.

10 Years of Hate Story Throwback: “Usually in our films, it’s the male who has more inhibitions about stripping, kissing and love-making. There’s too much performance anxiety in the male” – Vivek Agnihotri

Hate Story embarked upon a unique promotional campaign. The first look was dropped on February 22, 2012. It showed a bare back of a woman holding a gun in her hand. The face of the girl was not visible. The sensuous first look and the tagline ‘Love killed her soul, her body seeks revenge’ gave the indication of an erotic thriller, which was rare a decade ago. According to reports, the film fetched Rs. 10 crore for all India theatrical rights just on the basis of the poster.

It was later that it was unveiled that Hate Story stars Bengali actress Paoli Dam. Nikhil Dwivedi and Gulshan Devaiah also starred in this flick. The theatrical trailer further enhanced the hype. It made it clear that there’s an abundance of sex and thrill. Also the dialogues like ‘Main iss shehar ki sabse badi r***i banna chahti hoon’ shocked the viewers and further made them curious.

During the interviews, the actors and Vivek Agnihotri gave headline-worthy quotes. In a Bollywood Hungama exclusive interaction, some of the notable quotes given by Vivek are "All great actors all over the world have done explicit scenes if the script demanded. It's only in Bollywood that we have actors laying down terms and conditions," and "In an erotic thriller, there are bound to be sex scenes. Doing away with those is like making a war movie without any guns, firing or bloodshed."

When asked about working with Bengali actresses in all his films (he had worked with Tanushree Dutta in Chocolate and Bipasha Basu in Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal), Vivek Agnihotri replied, "You won't believe it but most of my girlfriends have also been Bengali (laughs). I have this Bengali kink I guess."

In another Bollywood Hungama interview, Vivek Agnihotri stated, “I had explained to Paoli that I didn't want to sham the nudity or the love-making. She understood what her character was supposed to do. I expected my leading man to be shy. Usually, in our films, it's the male who has more inhibitions about stripping, kissing and lovemaking. There's too much performance anxiety in the male. Gulshan Devaiah was every bit as unabashed as Paoli. What we've captured in the film is the kind of explicit love-making never seen in Hindi films.”

Meanwhile, just a few days before the release, the Calcutta High Court upheld the state censor board's diktat to cover the posters revealing Paoli Dam's bare back. Before this verdict, the West Bengal Board of Censorship had ordered the film's regional distributors not to display the posters on Kolkata streets. The government of West Bengal then ordered Paoli’s bare body on the poster to be covered with blue ink!

An unfazed Vivek Agnihotri had said, "I am getting more publicity because of this. My film is now bigger than it was earlier."

Hate Story clashed with Ayushmann Khurrana’s debut vehicle, Vicky Donor. While Vicky Donor was released in just 575 screens, Hate Story’s screen count was 1100, which is nearly double. Due to the buzz, Hate Story opened at Rs. 2.10 crore while Vicky Donor’s first day earnings were Rs. 1.80 crore.

The word of mouth of Hate Story was just decent and hence, its opening weekend collections were Rs. 6.60 crore and lifetime earnings were Rs. 13.55 crore. Vicky Donor, meanwhile, became a rage. From day 2, it had a jump in the earnings. Its first weekend collections were Rs. 7.40 crore. It ended its run with Rs. 35.50 crore lifetime collections.

Nevertheless, Hate Story became franchise-worthy. The second part, Hate Story 2 (2014), also had a lot of oomph and action and opened at Rs. 5.46 crore. Hate Story 3 (2015), meanwhile, seemed a bit more classy than the first two. It generated such a huge buzz that it collected a mind-boggling Rs. 9.72 crore. The same year, Akshay Kumar’s Baby and Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam had earned less than this erotic flick! Its lifetime collections were Rs. 51.69 crore. The final part, Hate Story IV (2018), had decent lifetime collections (Rs. 22.38 crore), though not as much as the second and third installments.

Hate Story thus proved to be a game-changer. We began the article by talking about the poster. As the film completes 10 years, Bollywood Hungama brings to you a rare, unreleased poster of the film. This one features a topless Paoli Dam on top of a man and staring at the camera with sizzle and rage.