Governor Jaisingh Sinha (Raj Babbar) is a prominent political figure, who is known as an upright person. Sinha presides over a meeting attended by influential industrialist Meghnad Chaudhry (Dalip Tahil), Vilas Rao (Sharat Saxena) and minister Mantriji (Prem Chopra), among others.

Sahil Sinha (Bobby Deol) is the step-son of Sinha, Sahil's mother Sharda (Priya Tendulkar) began to live with Sinha after the death of her husband. Sahil is an unattached and easy-going young man, who resents Sinha, Sinha has a younger son named Harsh. Ishwar Dewan (Paresh Rawal) is Sinha's Personal Secretary, and his daughter Isha (Kajol) is Sahil's beloved. On the other hand, Sheetal (Manisha Koirala), the daughter of Meghnad Chaudhry, is also in love with Sahil, but it is not reciprocated by him.

One evening, Sinha throws a party for Sahil's birthday and announces Sahil's engagement to Sheetal, upon which an argument breaks out. At one point, Sahil tries to stab his father, but is stopped by Sharda. The next day, Sahil gets heavily drunk at the house of Dr Gandhi (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), Sinha's family doctor, who advises Sahil to accept Sheetal as his wife and that Sahil will lead a happier life with her. A drunk Sahil returns home and finds to his shock that someone has stabbed Sinha. Before Sinha can tell the name of the murderer he dies, while Sharda arrives and finds Sahil near his dead step-father holding a knife. Sahil is accused and taken to court, where many of his acquaintances and Sharda testify against him. Sahil is found guilty and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Just before Sahil is transported to jail, he hands over a necklace to Sheetal, implying that it was left behind at the scene by the killer.

In jail, Sahil relates his story to an old prisoner, who believes him to be innocent. The prisoner tells Sahil that the jail only has one escape route - a sewage gutter pipe that can be accessed from a flush toilet located in an unused chamber of the jail. Sahil creates a problem with other prisoners, causing the jailor (Tej Sapru) to confine him and two prisoners in the chamber. The three succeed in escaping the jail by sea, with a boat arranged by Sheetal.

Police Commissioner Patwardhan (Anjan Srivastav) assigns an unbending and upright police officer Udham Singh (Om Puri) to handle the case of Sahil's re-apprehension. Sahil secretly meets Isha at her home, where he calls Dr Gandhi for advice, and Dr Gandhi invites Sahil to his home. Sahil reaches the doctor's residence and is shocked to find that somebody has stabbed Dr Gandhi. Dr Gandhi's servant finds Sahil near the dead doctor and shrieks, causing him to run away. Dr Gandhi's servant reports Sahil to the police.

Udham Singh interrogates Sheetal, with whom Sahil still maintains a good relationship. Sheetal confesses to having spent the previous night with Sahil and also helping him escape jail. Singh does not arrest Sheetal for these wrongdoings.

Sahil, to prove his innocence resolves to find the real murderer. He suspects advocate Thanawala, because Thanawala had a very good chance of obtaining Sinha's property upon his death, provided Sahil is out of the picture. He asked Thanawala and beat him and figures that he is not the murderer. Sahil now suspects Chaudhry or his brother, because of Chaudhry's involvement in business fraud. After interrogating him, Sahil realises that Chaudhry is innocent as well. The next is Vilas Rao, the corrupt Union leader, who points the finger at Mantriji, saying that Sinha's murder was a political assassination. Sahil and Sheetal trick Mantriji into attending a ceremony and kidnap him. Udham Singh is also present there and realizes that Sahil is not the real murderer.

Udham Singh finds out that the murders have been committed with two knives of exactly the same build and shape, that could belong to a set. He finds the set of knives at Ishwar Dewan's house and arrests Dewan, who confesses to the killing of Sinha and Dr Gandhi. Dewan divulges to have murdered Sinha because he did not accept Isha as his daughter-in-law; and killed Dr Gandhi to cover up the first crime. At the same time, Sahil was interrogating Mantriji, but Sheetal arrives and tells him that the murderer is Ishwar Dewan, making Sahil release Mantriji.

Harsh, Sinha's son, is seen playing with the necklace which Sahil had found at the crime scene. He opens the necklace and finds his and Isha's picture inside the locket. So apparently Isha is the murderer. In the meantime, Isha stabs Officer Udam Singh, who suffers major wounds.

Sahil interrogates Ishwar Dewan, who reveals that Isha was the murderer and gives a summary of all the murders she committed, simply because she didn't want to be separated from Sahil.

Sahil understands that Isha will attack Sheetal next and calls her and informs her to lock all doors and entrances. Sheetal takes this warning jokingly as Isha arrives. Sheetal is fooled by Isha at first, because she falsely apologizes. Isha attacks Sheetal at her house, where Sahil arrives on time to save her. The police also arrive and end up shooting Isha. Isha and Sahil share a last embrace before she dies.

• Bobby Deol as Sahil Sinha
• Manisha Koirala as Sheetal Choudhry
• Kajol as Isha Diwan
• Raj Babbar as Gov. Jaisingh Sinha
• Paresh Rawal as Ishwar Diwan
• Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Insp. Neelkanth
• Prem Chopra as Mantri
• Om Puri as Insp. Udham Singh
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Dr. Gandhi
• Dalip Tahil as Meghnath Choudhry (Sheetal's dad)
• Mukesh Rishi as Babu Anna
• Tej Sapru as a Jailer
• Harish Patel as Phoolchand
• Ashok Saraf as Havaldar Pandu
• Anjan Srivastav as Commissioner Patwardhan
• Vishwajeet Pradhan as a Bounty hunter
• Dinesh Anand
• Dinesh Hingoo as Thanawala's servant
• Priya Tendulkar as Sharda Sinha (Sahil's mom)
• Bob Christo as Boat organiser
• Raza Murad as Lawyer Thanawala
• Sharat Saxena as Vilas Rao
• Usman Khan
• Master Harsh Lunia as Harsh Sinha (Sahil's younger brother)
• Aparajita as Mrs. Choudhry

The movie seems has borrowed ideas from the Hollywood movie The Shawshank Redemption, where the convict meets a friendly inmate who hands over a tool (rock hammer as compared to an iron rod in the Hindi movie) to aid the convict's escape. Also, the jail fight of the protagonist with other inmates, keeping the convict in isolation and the eventual escape through sewer lines. Most of director Rajiv Rai's (and producer Gulshan Rai's) films are of action-thriller genre that recount the activities of some baddies who carry out tasks detrimental to the society or the country, and to fight whom a righteous person has to adopt the path of crime themselves. An intrinsic factor that betokens most of Rai's action-thriller films is the element of uncertainty; everything remains unfathomable, that could be disclosed only at the last minute. The story of the horror-thriller film Gupt revolves around the murder of a political chief and the reason of this murder by an unknown killer remains utterly mysterious. Initially, the murder seems to be familial, i.e., committed by a near and dear one, while later it seems to be a political murder accomplished by a probable enemy of the victim. Some well-known villains of Bollywood have played major roles in the film, namely, Prem Chopra, Paresh Rawal, Raza Murad, Harish Patel, Tej Sapru, Sharat Saxena, Dalip Tahil, Vishwajeet Pradhan and Mukesh Rishi. The plot of the film is fashioned in a way that makes the viewers suspect that everyone has an axe to grind in the murder. At the end, the revelation of the killer horrifies the viewers.

The film's soundtrack composed by Viju Shah won the Filmfare Best Background Score award in 1998. It was also nominated for the Best Music Director award. " Duniya Haseeno Ka Mela " was very popular that year. The rest of the album was highly praised by critics and audience.

Track list

Gupt received positive reviews from critics. Fullhyderabad.com gave it a 7.5/10 rating and wrote, "It is a slickly made movie with stylish cinematography, beautiful locales, and pretty good performances. It falls in the genre of thriller movies and fares much better than any of its sorry predecessors did. The director, Rajiv Rai is not over-awed by the subject and so does not make a hosh-posh out of the whole thing."^[5] Mohammad Ali Ikram of Planet Bollywood praised the suspense and music.^[6]

Gupt grossed ?250 million (US$3.7 million) at the domestic box office. Box Office India declared it a "Hit".^[1]

1997 was one of the most successful years for Bollywood with hits like Border, Judwaa, Dil to Pagal Hai, Pardes, Yes Boss, Virasat, Ziddi, Ishq and Gupt: The Hidden Truth. Gupt won three Filmfare Awards and was nominated in five other categories. It was also the fourth largest blockbuster of the year after Border, Dil To Pagal Hai and Pardes. Kajol was the first woman in Filmfare Award history to receive the Best Villain award.

1998 Filmfare awards

• Best Villain - Kajol
• Best Background Score - Viju Shah
• Best Editing - Rajiv Rai
• Nominated Best Supporting Actor - Om Puri

• Red herring (narrative)
• Twist ending