The film was released in three different languages. The Telugu and Hindi versions were released in two parts, six weeks apart, while the Tamil version was released as a single film titled Raththa Sarithiram (Tamil: ரத்த சரித்திரம்).
Part I
The film starts with a narration about politics and gangs in Anantpur district, Andhra Pradesh. The opening scene of a murder in broad daylight, which the narrator calls "rakta politics", sets the tone of the movie. Narasimha Reddy, a local politician, is a powerful man in the area. His close associate Veera Bhadra (Rajendra Gupta) is his trustwothy ally for his political work, to the extent that Narasimha Reddy gives him freedom to contest Jilla Parishad polls with his men. Veera Bhadra champions the causes of the poor and oppressed and they look up to him like their leader.Nagamuni Reddy (Kota Srinivas Rao), who is the local MLA of the district and close to Narasimha Reddy, becomes jealous of the budding trust between Veera Bhadra and Narasimha Reddy, and starts poisoning Narasimha Reddy against Veera Bhadra. Narasimha summons Veera Bhadra and asks him not to contest the polls with his contestants, but rather support Nagamuni Reddy's. Veera Bhadra lashes out at Narasimha Reddy for being unfair to the lower castes and storms out. Nagamuni Reddy calls for Mari (Ashish Vidyarthi), a close follower of Veera Bhadra, and manipulates him into killing Veera Bhadra, giving him the assurance that if he does it, people will suspect the policies of Veera Bhadra as his own follower killed him and he will be the next in line as the leader of the poor people, else take his life. Mari reluctantly agrees to it. Veera Bhadra and his wife (Zarina Wahab) travel in a bus with 40 people to a wedding. Manda and Nagamuni's men stop the bus, kill Veera Bhadra's guards, and tell him to step out of the bus or else he will be killed along with the other innocents on the bus. Veera Bhadra comes out, looking at Mari, and dares him to kill. Nagamuni's henchman Durga shoots at Veera Bhadra, making it look like Mari shot at him; prompting Mari about the deal he made with Nagamuni, he tells him to kill him in front of everyone. Mari takes a boulder and crushes Veera Bhadra's skull and kills him.
This results in an agitation led by Shankar, who wants to avenge his father's murder by killing all the men of Nagamuni and Narasimha Reddy. Enter Nagamuni's son Bukka Reddy (Abhimanyu Singh), described as a ruthless man who enjoys raping women and killing men in brutal ways. He starts killing Shankar's men in gory ways: drilling a hole into their skull, chopping off their heads with a sugarcane chopper, burning them alive and feeding them to ravenous rats.
Pratap Ravi (Vivek Oberoi), who is in college in the city, gets the news of his father's murder and rushes to the village. Nagamani Reddy orders local police inspector to kill Shankar in a fake encounter. When Pratap goes to the police station to ask about his brother, the inspector shows him Shankar's dead body and mocks him. Infuriated with this brother's murder, Pratap and Veera Bhadra's men kill all the police officers and the inspector.
Pratap Ravi hides in the jungle with his father's associates and vows to kill Narsimha Reddy, Nagamuni Reddy and Manda one by one, instilling fear of death in each one of them. He starts by busting in the house of Narasimha Reddy, killing his guards and finally killing him with a scythe in front of his wife as she looks on in horror. Next is Manda; as he roams in the market, Pratap's men follow him, and before he can defend himself, they chop his hand off. Manda begs for his life but Pratap stabs him in front of everyone. They plan to kill Nagamuni Reddy, but they are cautious as there is heavy police security in his house. As Nagamuni Reddy is sitting on his lawn conversing with a police officer, he is shot at by Pratap, who is dressed as the cop, and his men, dressed as cops as well, kill most of the policemen.
As Bukka Reddy and his brother Puru Reddy see their father's dead body, Bukka becomes enraged to the extent that he slaps the policewoman (Ashwini Khalsekar) who has come to take the body for postmortem. The story progresses as famed filmstar-turned-politician Shivaji Rao (Shatrughan Sinha) targets Anandpur for contesting elections. The day he enters Anandpur for the rally, Bukka's men throw bombs, which makes Shivaji Rao get back inside the car and go back. This insults him greatly and he asks his secretary for the one who can stop Bukka. Immediately, his secretary mentions Pratap's name; Shivaji Rao sends for him and puts down a proposal of joining his party and ticket for contesting elections. On the other hand, Bukka Reddy makes his brother Puru Reddy contest for elections and tries to sabotage the voting process by stealing the ballots. Pratap starts his rampage by eliminating, one by one, every rival of his party. Eventually, he comes across a man named Babu Qadri who seeks Pratap's help in avenging his sister's death. Bukka Reddy had raped his 16-year-old sister, because of which she immolated herself, and Bukka had then broken Babu Qadri's leg. Pratap assures him his vengeance but asks him to forget everything for some time.
As Bukka's men fail in rigging the election process, Pratap wins by a majority. Immediately, Bukka Reddy is arrested. Puru Reddy seeks the help of opposition leader Sethji's help in influencing the release of Bukka on bail. As soon as Pratap learns of this news, he looks out for the location where Bukka is hiding. Bukka, inflamed with the desire to avenge his father's death, hides out in an apartment with his men, and plots to kill Pratap Ravi. Pratap comes to know about his hideout devises a plan to execute him. He immediately gathers his men and calls Babu Qadri, who had sought Pratap's help in avenging his sister, to lead the execution of Bukka Reddy. He calls for the servant of Bukka Reddy and bribes him with 5 lakhs to aid in the execution. Babu Qadri and Pratap's men rush into the apartment, killing all Bukka's men; Babu shoots at Bukka but he escapes the bullets and runs to the balcony through the back door, where Babu shoots him from behind, and hacks him repeatedly with his axe, venting his anger. Pratap Ravi, being at the peak of his power with Shivaji Rao's full support, invites all the gangsters of the state to his place for lunch; after lunch he orders everyone to stop their illegal activities or face the music, emphasizing the power that he has in the state now.
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