Highway 2022

The film opens with Anand Deverakonda as Vishnu, a photographer who narrates his own life story. In a brisk flashback, we learn Vishnu lives in Hyderabad with his mother, sister, and grandmother, and then heads to Bangalore with his long-time friend Satya as Samudram to shoot a wedding. On the same thread of events, Saiyami Kher portrays Asha Bharath, a determined investigator and part of a team chasing a chilling serial killer known only as “D,” who preys on young women for his own perverse pleasure. Parallel to this investigation, Tulasi, played by Manasa Radhakrishnan as Tulasi, is a gentle, ambitious village girl working on a dairy farm who longs to escape an abusive situation, reunite with her father, and start a better life in Mangalore. The tension heats up as D claims another victim, nudging Asha and her team closer to the truth while stirring distrust between them.

On Tulasi’s journey, a precautionary stop at a Dhaba becomes a turning point. A deaf old woman accidentally locks Tulasi inside, but she escapes and discovers she has missed the bus. A man who tries to harass her is thwarted by the Dhaba’s owner, Jaya, who shelters Tulasi for the night. In the meantime, Vishnu’s car breaks down, and he and Samudram repair it and head toward the Dhaba, where Vishnu and Tulasi cross paths and feel an instant, undeniable pull. The Dhaba owner, Jaya, is revealed to be Vishnu’s aunt, and a childhood spark between Samudram and Jaya lingers in the air. All the while, D attempts to kill another girl but fails, a brutal act that ends with him killing a small boy who worked for that girl, intensifying the man’s cold streak.

As Asha intensifies the hunt, she retrieves a crucial clue—a portrait of D from a lodge owner she had previously met—that sharpens the pursuit and deepens the mystery surrounding the killer. During their shared journey, Tulasi and Vishnu grow closer, their initial attraction blossoming into tender feelings. Vishnu must soon return to Bangalore and drops Tulasi near Mangalore, gifting her a phone for emergencies and urging her to stay hopeful. The bus Tulasi hopes to board refuses to start, leaving the passengers stranded and uneasy. A menacing figure who had previously tried to harass Tulasi reappears and offers a ride by coercion; as she tries to escape, a call to Vishnu connects only briefly. Enter D, who appears to intervene, but what looks like protection quickly becomes danger as he kidnaps Tulasi under the pretense of helping her.

Vishnu’s regret at leaving Tulasi behind fuels a rekindled resolve. Samudram urges him to return to Tulasi, while he seeks help from the courier network DHDC to locate her. After a tense pursuit, a driver from the courier company locates Tulasi with D in an ambulance and forwards the information to Vishnu. Asha and her assistant race to the scene to arrest D, but D turns the encounter into a standoff, wounding Asha and firing a shot at them as Tulasi is forcibly moved away. Vishnu arrives at the location, saves the injured Asha, and transfers her to a government hospital before setting out again to rescue Tulasi.

In the forest-stretching climax, D reveals his chilling motive: he began as an ambulance driver who found perverse pleasure in death, a life altered by a broken heart when his lover left him for a wealthier man. He believes Tulasi is particularly vulnerable—alone, with no one to come to her rescue—an idea that feeds his dangerous cravings. The rescue finally comes when Vishnu rushes in to save Tulasi, who fights back, while D strides into a final confrontation with the two of them. A tiger emerging from the trees turns the hunter into prey, attacking D and ending his spree as Tulasi and Vishnu reunite after surviving the ordeal.

The film closes with Tulasi and Vishnu recounting the harrowing sequence to the media, leaving the nation in shock as they tell the truth of what happened and the fear that still lingers. Their retelling confirms how fragile safety can be and how courage, love, and timely aid can interrupt even the darkest paths.