NH10

About the film

NH10 is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language thriller film directed by Navdeep Singh and written by Sudip Sharma. It stars Anushka Sharma, Neil Bhoopalam, Darshan Kumar, and Deepti Naval. NH10 was jointly produced by Clean Slate Filmz, Phantom Films, Eros International and marked the production debut of Sharma. It tells the story of a young couple whose road trip goes awry after an encounter with a group of violent criminals. The title refers to the National Highway 10 that connects Delhi to the town of Fazilka and passes through Haryana (where honor killing was prevalent).

The film was conceived by Singh and written by Sudip Sharma, who were inspired by some real-life honour killing murder cases. The soundtrack album was composed by Sanjeev-Darshan, Bann Chakraborty, Abhiruchi Chand, Ayush Shrestha, Savera Mehta and Samira Koppikar. Arbind Kannabiran served as the film's cinematographer and Jabeen Merchant was its editor.

Plot

Meera and Arjun are a married couple and are working in corporate business Gurugram. One night, they are enjoying a party when Meera receives a telephone call from her office. She leaves for her office but is attacked by thugs who smash her car's window. Meera escapes but is shaken by the incident; Arjun buys Meera a gun. Arjun suggests a road trip for Meera's upcoming birthday; the couple start their journey the next day, while stopping at a roadside dhaba for lunch, a young woman called Pinky arrives and pleads for help; Pinky tells the couple she and her husband are about to be murdered. Meera and Arjun see a gang of men round up Pinky and a young man, beat them and drag them into their vehicle. Arjun intervenes but Satbir, the gang leader, slaps him and tells him Pinky is his own sister.

Arjun drives after the gang; he and Meera witness the ongoing honour killing: Pinky and the young man are beaten and Pinky is poisoned by Satbir. Arjun and Meera escape but the gang finds them. As the gang dig a grave for their victims, Satbir uses Meera and Arjun's gun to shoot Pinky and the man in front of them. A fight ensues and Arjun shoots a gang member named Chhote, and runs away with Meera.

At night, one of the gang members injures Arjun; Meera shoots the gangster dead. At a railway bridge, Meera leaves Arjun to get help. She finds a police station and asks the officer to help but he rejects her when she says she has witnessed an honour killing. Outside, she meets an Inspector in his SUV and they drive back to find Arjun. Meera then realises the Inspector is connected with the attackers; she kills the inspector and drives off in his car, chased by the gang.

Production

Director Navdeep Singh made his directorial debut with Manorama Six Feet Under (2007). After that, he read several scripts for his next project and began work on the zombie comedy Rock the Shaadi and the spy thriller Basra, but both films were shelved. Singh said that he wanted to attempt genres that were rarely attempted in Indian cinema. He then chose to work on NH10, a "trip gone wrong" film as it would be "fairly cheap" to make. He said the idea of the film was to "show the stark contrast between two Indias, something that has been creating a lot of economic and social problems". He chose a female character for the role of sarpanch to show the "role of women in the upholding and dissemination of patriarchy [sic]", and stated that the film's main theme is gender.

Some of the scenarios in NH10 depicted such real-life events as honour killing cases; the scene in which a couple are murdered by their own families was inspired by a real-life case that Sharma and Singh came across while researching for the story. Singh drew likenesses between NH10's love story and the story of Savitri and Satyavan, where the wife fights to save her husband. Singh avoided scenes depicting sexual assault, which he thought could become "voyeuristic" or inadvertently "titillating". His production team had "self-censored" from showing blood in the film because he thought the mainstream Indian audience does not have an "appetite for gore". The title of the film refers to National Highway 10, which connects Delhi with the town of Fazilka and passes through Haryana (incidents in the movie are from Haryana).

In 2013, it was announced that Singh would be making NH10 with Freida Pinto and Rajkummar Rao. The script was first offered to Sharma, but she declined because she was busy with other films at that time. It was then offered to several other actors. While she was filming for Bombay Velvet (2015), its director Anurag Kashyap told Sharma that Singh was trying to make NH10. She read the script again and agreed to join the project, which was at that time without a producer. Sharma then decided to co-produce it. NH10 was Sharma's first film as a producer; it was made under her label Clean Slate Filmz. She agreed to film because the story felt real to her and its story could happen to anyone; she said, "when bad people attack you, they don't see [your sex]. I liked that about the story." Sharma called the personal struggle "very relatable", as she felt this could happen to anyone. Neil Bhoopalam said he agreed to appear in the film because he liked Singh's earlier film Manorama Six Feet Under. To prepare for the role, Sharma underwent interval training for around three months to physically suit the character. With Bhoopalam, she also took acting workshops conducted by Singh and Atul Mongia for the characters.

Key details