Highway is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language road drama film written and directed by Imtiaz Ali and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The film stars Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda. Screened in the Panorama section of the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival, the film was released worldwide on 21 February 2014. The film is based on the episode of the same name from the Zee TV anthology series Rishtey, starring Aditya Srivastava and Kartika Rane, which was also written and directed by Imtiaz Ali. It tells the story of a young woman who discovers freedom after being kidnapped.
Upon release, Highway received positive reviews from critics, with high praise directed towards Bhatt and Hooda's performance, thus proving to be a breakthrough for the former. It also emerged as a moderate commercial success at the box office.
At the 60th Filmfare Awards, Highway received 9 nominations, including Best Actress (Bhatt) and Best Story (Ali), and won Best Actress (Critics) (Bhatt).
Plot Veera Tripathi is the sheltered daughter of Manik Kumar Tripathi, a rich Delhi-based business tycoon. One day before her wedding, she goes on a drive with Vinay, her fiancé whom she does not love, and is abducted from a petrol station off a highway while Vinay sits in the car convulsed with fear. The abductors start to panic when they find out her father has links to the government. However, Mahabir Bhati, one of the assertive abductors, is willing to do whatever it takes to see it through.
The men continuously move Veera through different cities to avoid being tracked by police. Initially, Mahabir wants to get ransom for Veera and then sell her off to a brothel. Eventually, when the police forcefully search the truck, Veera hides, much to her own surprise. She concludes she loves the journey and does not want to return to her family. As the days pass, Veera finds peace and newfound freedom, confusing and frustrating Mahabir. Veera becomes comfortable with her captors and even confides in Mahabir that she was sexually abused by her uncle as a nine-year-old multiple times. She views the abduction as a blessing in disguise since she finally has the chance to experience life and find herself. Yet Mahabir, avoiding his feelings, is persistent to shove Veera into prostitution after receiving ransom. Slowly, she unravels Mahabir's story and learns his father continually abused both him when he was a young child and his mother, who was used as a sex slave by rich landlords. Mahabir escaped and never returned.
Mahabir slowly lets down his guard and begins to care for Veera, and his anger fades away. He tries to leave her at a police station in a small mountainous town they stop by. However, Veera refuses and insists on staying with Mahabir. They travel together, and he starts to fall in love with her. They stay in a hilltop house and Veera reveals having a small home in the mountains was one of her many dreams. Mahabir becomes emotional seeing how Veera cares for him, reminding him of his mother. Both sleep peacefully that night, free from their respective haunting pasts. The next morning, the police arrive and shoot Mahabir, to which Veera reacts strongly. It is later revealed Mahabir had died on the spot.
Veera is later brought back to her parents' house, where she recovers from the emotionally draining experience while surrounded by her family members, including Vinay. Finally gaining strength, she confronts her uncle, who molested her as a child, in front of her family. She yells and breaks down as she asks her father why he warned her about dangers posed by outsiders while the real threat was from insiders, the people who had surrounded her since childhood. She leaves the house and goes to live in the mountains, where she starts her own factory and buys her own house. Feeling content, she closes her eyes and envisions her nine-year-old self playing happily on the hillside with a young Mahabir, making peace with the man she loved and their mutual childhood forms.
Cast Alia Bhatt as Veera Tripathi Samar Mudasir Bakshi as young Veera Randeep Hooda as Mahabir Bhati Mohd. Kaif as young Mahabir Arjun Malhotra as Vinay Saharsh Kumar Shukla as Goru Pradeep Nagar as Tonk Durgesh Kumar as Aadoo Hemant Mahaur as Kasana Reuben Israel as Manik Kumar Tripathi, Veera's father Naina Trivedi as Amma
Production Development In an interview with The Telegraph, director Imtiaz Ali asserted, "Highway has been a story that has stayed with me for 15 years. There was something in it that didn't die. Usually you lose interest in a story beyond a certain point. But with Highway, there was something very subtle, yet something very influential". On the story he added, "Some years ago, I made a half-hour episode for a TV series (in 1999 for Zee TV's Rishtey starring Aditya Srivastava and Kartika Rane) and that's where I first got a hint for this story. And over time, it changed form and genres until I just gave up. And then it all settled down to this journey of two characters. As for the central female lead, I thought I would cast someone with some experience of life, someone who had probably been through some relationships. While penning the script he stated he had to change many scenes of the film because he felt they were becoming too similar to his previous film, Jab We Met (2007). He said that the film was his first digital film. The director initially envisioned casting an older actress, possibly someone like Aishwarya Rai, who he believed would be ideal for the role of Veera without makeup. However, after meeting Alia Bhatt, he did not consider anyone else for the part. In the April 2013 interview with the same, he said the film is primarily the story of two characters from very different backgrounds—played by Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda—who take the road trip across six states in a truck. Further, Ali told that he had thought of making Highway in various ways. At an instant he thought of making it a very big action film later he thought of scripting it in a very romantic way; some 12 years back, he drew romantic instances from Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988). He added, "The film is about the discovery of yourself while traveling. It's a coming-of-age film." Prior to shooting he didn't complete scripting for the film and the script got ready after the shooting of the scenes because the dialogues were decided on the spot. Over the improvisations in script, he stated, "For instance, when we were on the top of snow mountains in Himachal Pradesh, I wanted to be open to what nature suggested and the impulses the actors gave me, rather than stick to what I had written, sitting in a room in Mumbai. The film was made on the way, on the go. I had to have very suitable, good actors and a low maintenance crew." For Highway, Hooda prepared for his role with such sincerity that in order to keep the initial distance with Bhatt's character, he didn't speak to her for about 25 days.
Casting Ali said that earlier he was looking out for an older actress to match up with Hooda. However, the role went to Alia Bhatt that made effect on his film script. Later he added, "I needed somebody who is city slick girl (Alia Bhatt), who has never been out. But the guy (Randeep Hooda) had to be somebody who has had a life and understanding of life". About Hooda's character, Ali stated, "Mahabir is also pure enough not to be a prototypical villain. Only later in the film, certain things are revealed about him, why he's an oppressor." Besides the main casting Imtiaz Ali and Mukesh Chhabra cast Pradeep Nagar as one of the main henchman of Randeep.
Crew As per previous collaboration of Ali with the composer A. R. Rahman, the latter's inclusion in the project though initially rumored was confirmed by March 2013. In an interview with The Telegraph Ali stated that he wasn't even thinking of A. R. Rahman to score for this film. However, after reading the script Rahman agreed to score. In yet another interview Ali stated, he and Rahman were in touch through Skype and Rahman enquired about Ali's new project and wanted to collaborate after Ali deciphered the outline of the story. The film is produced by Sajid Nadiadwala under his production house and Imtiaz Ali is the co-producer. The cinematography was done by Anil Mehta. Resul Pookutty was roped in for the film's sound design. Lyricist Irshad Kamil has penned the songs.
Filming Principal photography began in early March 2013 on highways of India. Imtiaz Ali quoted, "Highway is emotionally charged, physically strenuous". The first look as a snap at the filming location featuring the director and the lead actors was released in March 2013. Initially, the director planned to shoot along Bengal-Bihar-Odisha highway road belt but later opted to shoot along the road highways of Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, making the film first of its kind to shoot such. Scenes were shot in Kuchaman valley where the sand dunes provided the terrain transitions that were necessarily required. In mid-April 2013, the crew was off to Gurais, Kashmir to shoot a song and some sequences in the valley. Scenes in Aru valley and Chandanwari near Pahalgam in South Kashmir were also canned. By early May 2013, nearly seventy percent of the filming was completed. Although the entire shooting was planned for 60 days, the team finished in 52 days. On filming scenes, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ali stated, "I also didn't go for a large camera setup such as cranes and dollies. I wanted the cameras to be easily transported as we were shooting in difficult locations such as on mountains. So if I thought the shot would look better from a higher angle, we could move the equipment faster than if we had a heavy setup." Officially, the shooting was wrapped up on 28 May 2013.
Plagiarism allegations Following the film's release, similarities were noted with the 1994 American film The Chase, an American action-comedy starring Charlie Sheen and centering on a wealthy young woman abducted by a fugitive, leading to allegations of plagiarism from both critics and audience. However, after comparing both films, film critic Baradwaj Rangan, while noting similarities, including the circumstances of the abduction, concluded that they were insufficient to characterize Highway as plagiarism, suggesting that The Chase could at most have served as an "inspiration."
Music
The film soundtrack album is composed by A. R. Rahman. The album contains nine original songs with lyrics of eight tracks penned by Irshad Kamil and remaining one by Lady Kash and Krissy. Initially, the film was planned with only background score and no songs. The track "Maahi Ve" sung by A. R. Rahman and "Patakha Guddi (Female)" sung by Nooran sisters (Jyoti & Sultana Nooran), both these singles framed the score of the theatrical trailer, These tracks clenched second position on iTunes India single charts on their respective release dates as singles. The complete soundtrack album had a digital release on 7 February 2014. It debuted on number one position on iTunes India and "Maahi Ve" was the chart topping single.
Marketing
Marketing began from November 2013 wherein series of behind the scenes footages as episodes titled under the head "Highway Diaries" were released on Bollywood Hungama's production blog.