Journalist Kavya Krishna (Paoli Dam) and her best friend, Vicky, pull off a sting operation against a big company which happens to belong to tycoon Siddharth Dhanrajgir. Siddharth, being a rich and cocky tycoon, wants revenge. He offers Kavya a job in his company with a three hundred percent raise in income. Kavya accepts his offer immediately. They go on a business trip together, and Kavya helps Siddharth get his company a good deal. That night, Siddharth takes Kavya to dinner, where they connect romantically and end up having sex. Upon returning, Kavya brings gifts for Vicky and tells him she loves her job.

The next day, Kavya goes to work and finds out that her entry pass to the office has been cancelled. She goes to talk to Siddharth, who arrogantly talks about his plan and pulls a gun out, tortures her, and says that he never had any feelings for her; he just wanted revenge for the sting operation she pulled. Heartbroken, Kavya leaves and applies for another job with Vicky's support. Vicky takes her to the doctor only to find out that she is now pregnant. Kavya immediately meets Siddharth who once again humiliates her but she tells him that she can prove that it's Siddharth's child through DNA testing. That night, Siddharth calls her and pretends to be sorry. He has her kidnapped, her fetus killed, her ovaries taken out, and then dumps her.

Vowing revenge, Kavya becomes a sex worker and sleeps with many various businessmen to get to Siddharth. First she contacts the CEO of cement company Cementec, Rajdev Singh, sleeps with him, and without his knowledge copies email from his phone. From there she comes to know that Cementec is going to do a joint venture with a German company due to which all shares of Delhi Cements company will fall. She leaks this information to Delhi Cements Chairman at the cost of ? 40 million. She reveals this to Siddharth and challenges him that she will destroy him. Siddharth then has cameras placed all over her house without her knowledge but Kavya comes to know after spotting a camera when she notices that her furniture had been rearranged. Kavya uses this weapon against him by inviting Rajdev to her home and seducing him. Knowing that Siddharth is viewing the footage, Kavya is able to entice Rajdev for more information regarding Cementec's future operations and scams, while in return, providing him with false information regarding Cementec's competitors.

Siddharth views this footage and comes to know that Rajdev is responsible for the leaking of information by Kavya. Siddharth also comes to believe the false information provided by Kavya to be true, resulting in Cementec suffering a loss of ? 100 billion. Siddharth has Rajdev killed and puts the blame for Cementec's downfall on Kavya resulting in her arrest. Kavya takes help from a cabinet minister to escape from jail by blackmailing him. She also offers to sleep with him at the cost of recovering the police file which contains her name and nominating her to the post of director of IIBI bank which holds account details for Cementec.

She becomes a board member for Cementec and accesses their files discovering a big scam. She exposes the scam at the annual general meeting. Siddharth is arrested for stealing millions from shareholders. Kavya goes back to her own house to get the watch gifted to her by Vicky. There she finds Rajdev's wife waiting for her with a gun. Rajdev's wife shoots Kavya thinking that she killed her husband. After killing Kavya she shoots herself too. The movie ends with Kavya's background voice saying, "Mare hue log kabar se nahi dara karte, Vicky."(Dead people are not scared of the grave, Vicky).

• Nikhil Dwivedi as Vicky
• Gulshan Devaiah as Siddharth Dhanrajgir
• Paoli Dam as Kavya Krishnan
• Mohan Kapoor as Cabinet minister K. Malhotra
• Joy Sengupta as Rajdev Singh
• Saurabh Dubey as Kumar Dhanrajgir
• Iravati Harshe as Archana Jaidev Singh
• Bhairavi Goswami as Bhairavi
• Gopal Singh
• Mukesh W. Tyagi
• Mukti Mohan as special appearance in the song Raat (uncredited)

Censorship

Before the release of the film, the CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) ordered the sex scenes in the movie to be reduced by 50%, dialogues were left untouched. Vikaram Bhatt has praised the censors and was quoted to have said - . "The censor board has been great. They've passed all the dialogues and only got us to cut the excesses in the love-making scenes. I'm extremely pleased with their progressive thinking". One sex scene that was cut in particular can be viewed in the trailer, although no uncut version of the film is available via home entertainment.

Critical reception

Subhash K. Jha of IANS has given 3.5 out of 5 Stars by saying "'Hate Story' is a most riveting and aesthetic saga of a woman's revenge against the man.". Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film a score of 3 out of 5 and said, "On the whole, HATE STORY banks on the age-old vendetta theme, but what takes it beyond the mediocre mark is the cat and mouse game played by the protagonist and antagonist, besides, of course, the bold and provocative scenes that add spice to the proceedings. Though engaging in parts, there's no denying that the second hour seizes your attention, making it a watchable experience.".^[12] Srijana Mitra Das for The Times of India has given 3 out of 5 stars and says "'So, yeah, Hate Story exposes a lot - underneath Delhi's surface, that is, not really, as the adverts so tantalizingly showcased, of leading lady Paoli Dam. The film instead blows the top right off the dirty deals, the, well, intercourse between different power spheres ruling India's capital - business, politics, journalism, police, all meet in this slick flick. Depending on who you are, the intersections provide some pleasure - and lots of pain."^[13]

Raja Sen for Rediff.com has given 1.5/5 stars and says "Despites its bold promos, Hate Story offers very little skin show.".^[14]

Background score of the film is composed by Amar Mohile.

All lyrics written by Kumaar and Shabbir Ahmed; all music composed by Harshit Saxena.

The film's total nett gross was ?12.01 crore and was declared "Average" by the Box Office India.^[16]

A sequel, entitled Hate Story 2 released on 18 July 2014.^[17][18] The film stars Surveen Chawla, Jay Bhanushali and Sushant Singh in the lead roles. Its third sequel is Hate Story 3, starring Sharman Joshi, Zarine Khan, Karan Singh Grover and Daisy Shah. It was released in December 4, 2015. Both sequels were commercially successful.On 9 March 2018 Hate Story 4 released which wasn't very successful at box office.