| Director | Puri Jagannadh |
|---|---|
| Genre | action film |
| Runtime | 147 min |
| Country | India |
| Budget | ₹35 crore |
| Box office | ₹74.3 crore |
Daya, an orphan, developed a preconceived idea during his childhood that a cop's life would be buoyant and easy, having seen the police often taking bribes, and harbors an aspiration to become one. He grows to be a corrupt Sub-Inspector and gets transferred to Vishakapatnam, where he quickly is in cahoots with local don Waltair Vasu and begins to earn quick bucks. He earns hatred from Narayana Murthy, an honest constable under him, when Daya releases Vasu's four younger brothers Ravi, Mani, Vamsi, and Sundeep from prison, where they were apprehended for smuggling on Gandhi Jayanti. Elsewhere, he begins to woo Saanvi, a Blue Cross member who reciprocates his feelings.
Vasu's henchmen abduct Saanvi on her birthday, mistaking her for the girl they were actually supposed to kidnap and later kill. Daya fights them off to rescue her, and Vasu clears the confusion with his arrival and lets go of Daya and Saanvi after apologizing to them. As her birthday gift, Saanvi pleads with Daya to save the actual target. Daya obliges, saving the girl, Lakshmi, much to Vasu's chagrin. Daya later reconciles with Vasu, who agrees to relinquish his plans of murdering Lakshmi if Daya manages to retrieve a piece of evidence she holds against a crime of his brothers.
Daya talks with Lakshmi to learn that her younger sister Deepthi was brutally raped and killed after being subjected to torture for 40 days by Vasu's brothers (who kidnapped Deepthi on the same day Daya had released them unlawfully), who filmed everything and stored the footage in a CD, which Lakshmi managed to discover. Lakshmi entrusts Daya with the disc, requesting him to get the culprits to justice, while Daya (under the pretext of Lakshmi and her mother's safety) arranges for her and her mother to leave for USA, where Lakshmi had a job before Deepthi 's murder.
Daya learns that Lakshmi's mother was the one who approached him to file a missing person complaint of Deepthi days after the kidnapping, but he convinced her that she had eloped, in his ignorance and carelessness, rather than investigating, before being privy to the crime. Deepthi's mother hopes for her "eloped" daughter to return, and is still unaware of the atrocities that Deepthi was subjected to, as Lakshmi chose to hide it for the sake of her mother's stability. Daya drops Lakshmi and her mother at the airport, where the former's conversation with him brings a change in Daya, who holds himself responsible for Deepthi's murder as the crime had only occurred due to his corrupt actions.
Vasu's henchmen arrive at the station to retrieve the disc from Daya, who is told by Murthy of the humanity and compassion still in him. Daya fights off the henchmen and decides to get the brothers punished. Daya recognizes Saanvi as the reason for his reformation and reveals his previous actions to her, but she chooses to forgive him as he has become a changed person.
Meanwhile, Deepthi's corpse is discovered, discarded on a beach. The brutality of the crime stuns the nation, and even the doctors who performed the autopsy on her. In court, Daya's lawyer produces the disc as evidence against the brothers, but it had been tampered with, making the sole proof of the brothers' criminality in the murder invalid. Daya deduces that his lawyer was working with Vasu to obstruct the case and regrets not making copies of it. Lakshmi's mother, who is in the US, suffers from a heart stroke after learning of Deepthi's death.
Daya decides that he will bring the brothers to justice by any means possible. The next day in court, he states that he has also assaulted Deepthi along with the four brothers and was an accomplice to the crime, to make sure that the brothers do not escape the death sentence, even at the cost of his life. The statement shocks everyone, including Saanvi and Murthy, with both of them refusing to believe his declaration. The judge gives a death sentence to Daya and the brothers.
Lakshmi, learning of Daya's stance, contacts Murthy to reveal that she had an extra copy of the murder footage with her all along for caution, and shares it with the media, proving Daya's innocence. As a result, Daya's death penalty is cancelled, while the brothers initiate a brawl with the police minutes before their hanging. In the fight, Daya kills three of them, while the fourth commits suicide at the spot where he was supposed to be hanged to death, fearing Daya's wrath. Daya is released from prison and reinstated into the police service, and reconciles with Saanvi and Murthy.