Woh Lamhe tells the story of Sana Azim (Kangana Ranaut), a Bollywood superstar who is dominated by her boyfriend Nikhil (Shaad Randhawa), who makes all her career decisions for her. To the world she is a successful and independent woman, but she's actually lonely and lost, a mere puppet in Nikhil's hands. Aditya Garewal (Shiney Ahuja) is an aspiring director keen on casting Sana for his debut film, but only on his own terms; he is willing to go to any lengths to get her to agree to the film, even if that means preying on her slight insecurities and her turbulent relationship with Nikhil. Nikhil is successful in casting her in her film, which turns out to be a super hit. But somewhere along the way he realizes that he just can't pull away from Sana; he has actually fallen in love with her in spite of his friend Sam (Purab Kohli) reminding him that Sana is just their ladder to success. As the film progresses Aditya realizes that Sana is not just insecure and lonely; she's also mentally unbalanced, suffering from acute schizophrenia. She's haunted by the imaginary Rani who leads her to believe that everyone is out to kill her. Sana's mother and Nikhil get her admitted to the hospital and resort to shock treatment to speed up her recovery so she can return to all her assignments. What follows is Aditya's unshakable belief that he can heal Sana; he even gives up his burgeoning career to take her away from the industry and free Sana from all of her mental demons. But she's unable to break free of her illness, and one day she walks out of Aditya's life, no longer wanting to be the cause of pain and turbulence in his life. Three years later they meet in a hospital after Sana's suicide attempt.