Khiladi 2022

Bala Singham is a ruthless crime boss who engineers a sweeping ploy to siphon a container filled with ₹10,000 crore (US$1.2 billion) into India with the aim of bribing MLAs to install his ally, Guru Singham, as the next Chief Minister. The plan is as audacious as it is dangerous, setting in motion a high-stakes battle where power, money, and loyalty collide across the criminal underworld and the corridors of politics. As the scheme unfolds, observers are drawn into a tangled web of deception, where every move could trigger a deadly retaliation or expose a bigger scheme at play.

Meenakshi Chaudhary plays [Pooja], a criminologist who discovers the name Mohan Gandhi(/actor/ravi-teja) in her research. Gandhi is a man convicted of killing his entire family except for his daughter, and when Pooja visits him in prison, he initially refuses to speak. Yet the sight of the bond between him and his daughter softens him, and she promises to help him obtain bail if he narrates his story — a bargain Gandhi accepts, hoping to reveal the truth behind the dark acts of his past.

In the backstory, Gandhi is an orphan raised by a wealthy businessman, Rajasekhar. He rises to become the General Manager of Rajasekhar’s company and leads a seemingly stable life with his wife Chitra/Aditi and their daughter. A CBI officer, Arjun, arrests Rajasekhar in a money-laundering case tied to the same ₹10,000 crore plot connected to Bala Singham. Guru Singham offers Gandhi a cruel choice: find the money or watch his family be harmed. Gandhi confronts Rajasekhar and learns that the family’s fate was sealed as a favor to Guru Singham, who had helped Rajasekhar in the past. Gandhi secretly tracks down the money’s location, trusting that the truth will prevail.

In the present, Pooja leverages her father-in-law’s name, Jayaram, to secure Gandhi’s bail so she can perform the final rites for his father-in-law. As Arjun and Jayaram scramble to halt him, Gandhi escapes, and Pooja soon discovers a staggering twist: Gandhi’s supposed dead family members are very much alive and part of his crew. The shocking reveal is that Gandhi is a Dubai-based con artist whose real aim is to fool everyone and steal the money, and Arjun was sent to arrest him in Dubai.

The past reveals Gandhi’s meticulous plan to seize the ₹10,000 crore: he enlists a club dancer named Chitra/Aditi and, with the help of his gang, hacks Bala Singham’s communications to locate the money. When Gandhi is about to claim the fortune, Arjun arrests him, and Gandhi surrenders, accepting a 14-year prison sentence for crimes he didn’t commit. In prison, he befriends Ramakrishna, whose story Gandhi later uses to convince Pooja that his past was a fabrication designed to secure his release through forged documents.

Back in the present, Arjun formulates a plan to trap both David and Gandhi. Outside the courtroom, Gandhi corners David in a shootout, while Singham’s men capture Ramakrishna. David reveals that an unseen mastermind gave the orders, a figure who is ultimately revealed to be Jayaram. Pooja is shaken by the betrayal but learns that the cash is cryptocurrency, adding a modern twist to the scheme. Meanwhile, Chitra/Aditi betrays Gandhi and shoots him for the money. While Gandhi is hospitalised, Pooja learns from Gandhi’s henchmen that his goal was to found a charitable trust for those in need. She admits to lying about the money being in cash and reveals that her father held the actual funds.

Singham’s men arrive, and Guru Singham mobilizes to seize the money, but Gandhi arrives to turn the tables, killing Singham’s henchmen and Singham himself. Gandhi frees Ramakrishna, who finally reunites with his daughter, in a tense standoff with Arjun. In a climactic face-off, Arjun sees Gandhi as a changed man and chooses to let him go, recognizing a deeper struggle against a corrupted system. The dust settles with Guru Singham stripped of power as the supposed “money” turns out to be a ruse, while Gandhi reveals that he actually stole the real funds to expose a rotten system, bidding Arjun good luck in the fight to arrest him again when the time comes.