Manish Gupta’s stylish confidently-shot whodunit Rahasya features K K Menon as an akhrot-chomping CBI officer on the trail of the murder of a young girl who is killed in her swanky home while her doctor-father was drunk in the next room. Gupta keeps the narrative going in a steady flow and at a perky pace. The shots are cut deftly. This is a dark, desperate, sinister, gutsy, and gripping thriller that may not tilt you to the edge of the seat but gets you close.
Director Manish Gupta speaks about Rahasya, which was released ten years ago, in this exclusive interview.
Ten years of your most well-known film?
I still can’t believe that it’s been ten years since Rahasya released. Amongst all six films that I’ve directed, the journey of Rahasya was the toughest.
Why?
The film’s release was halted by the Talwar family, who claimed that the film was based on their daughter Aarushi Talwar’s murder case for which both of Aarushi’s parents were in jail. I had to stand at the Bombay High Court for a tedious eleven months fighting the case. But finally, I won the case.
Did your ordeal end?
My troubles did not end there. I learnt that the Talwar family was about to approach the honourable Supreme Court. Had their case entered the Supreme Court, the film would have never released. So, the distributors and I drew out the only strategy that would nullify the Talwar family’s efforts to approach the Supreme court.
What was the strategy?
We had to release the film immediately, giving the Talwar family no time to approach the Supreme Court. But this left us with no time for publicity or for getting proper theatrical shows. I’d won the case at the honourable High Court on Tuesday and the same week on Friday, we put the film in the theatres – without any publicity.
I remember it was dropped on the audience without warning
In the absence of publicity, no one knew that the film had released. Yet, the film ran for 100 days (15 weeks) in theatres purely due to positive word-of-mouth publicity. After that, the film has done phenomenally well on three major OTT platforms. Over the years, the film has gained the status of a cult classic.
