Trama

An ambitious Indian driver uses his wit and cunning to escape from poverty and rise to the top. An epic journey based on the New York Times bestseller.

Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) narrates his epic and darkly humorous rise from poor villager to successful entrepreneur in modern India. Cunning and ambitious, our young hero jockeys his way into becoming a driver for Ashok (Rajkumar Rao) and Pinky (Priyanka Chopra-Jonas), who have just returned from America. Society has trained Balram to be one thing--a servant--so he makes himself indispensable to his rich masters. But after a night of betrayal, he realizes the corrupt lengths they will go to trap him and save themselves. On the verge of losing everything, Balram rebels against a rigged, unequal system to rise up and become a new kind of master.—Netflix

Destined to work his fingers to the bone on his family's tea stall, ambitious Balram spots a golden opportunity to break free from the plight of his caste and forge his path to financial success. And having perfected the subtle art of flattery, bright-eyed Balram learns how to drive. Then, the young dreamer lands a job as a chauffeur for wealthy, US-educated Ashok. However, in a world structured to keep Balram forever a have-not--where corruption, bribery, and betrayal go hand in hand--fulfilling the aspirations of his mission is easier said than done. As a result, Balram's repressed anger blows up after a shocking but eye-opening incident. Now, no one is safe from harm. But does Balram have what it takes to become a white tiger?—Nick Riganas

In 2010, entrepreneur Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourav) emails Chinese premier Wen Jiabao from Bangalore, requesting a meeting, and relating his life story. Jiabao was slated to come to India to meet local entrepreneurs. He states his belief that the Indian underclass is trapped in a perpetual state of servitude, like chickens in a chicken coop. He says he admires the Chinese as the British wanted to make them their servants, but the Chinese never allowed it to happen.

As a young boy in Laxmangarh, Balram is offered a scholarship to a school in Delhi because of his advanced academics. He is told that he is a "white tiger," someone born only once in a century. He is taught about the Great Socialist (Swaroop Sampat), who says that any ordinary person can grow up to be the Prime Minister of India. Balram's his father (a rickshaw puller) is unable to pay off village landlord 'the Stork' (Mahesh Manjrekar) (who collected a third of everything they earned). Mukesh "The Mongoose" Shah (Vijay Maurya) is the Stork's feared son and enforcer. Balram is forced by his grandmother Kusum (Kamlesh Gill) to work in the village's tea stall (along with his brother Kishan), and he never returns to school. Balram's father dies from tuberculosis, with no doctor to treat him even after they traveled 2 days to get to the only rural hospital in their district.

As a young man, Balram was still working with Kishan at the tea stall. Balram aspires to become a chauffeur for the Stork's son Ashok (Rajkummar Rao), who has returned from the United States with his Jackson Heights-raised wife Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas). Balram asked Kusum for Rs 300 for driving lessons which she refuses. Balram knew that Kusum had married Kishan off, and when he had a kid, he was stuck forever. Balram knew that the same fate awaited him.

Balram has his grandmother sponsor his driving lessons, with the promise of sharing his chauffeur salary. Balram leaves his village and travel to Dhanbad where the Stork family had made their fortune in Coal mining. Balram takes some basic driving lessons and goes to the Stork mansion. Balram is taken for a test drive by Stork, Ashok and Mukesh. He says that he is not a Muslim and is from a low caste. But assures them that he bathes daily and doesn't drink. Balram says that his caste men are very good cooks. Balram is offered Rs 1500 per month during probation, and Rs 2000 per month upon confirmation. He is told that he will only drive Ashok. Mukesh checks out Balram's family, so if anything goes wrong, they will murder Balram's entire family.

Balram is hired as the Stork family's second driver but is also given menial tasks to complete (like cleaning the carpets and cleaning windows) and is otherwise mistreated. Balram is kept loyal by the threat of him, and his entire family being murdered if he were to conduct a betrayal. Ashok wants to launch a digital business to educate millions of half-educated people like Balram and to improve their earnings potential. But Stork and Mukesh don't understand the internet-based economy as they made their fortune in coal. One-night Balram wakes up in the middle of the night to find the primary driver cooking meat outside their room. Balram follows the primary driver the next day and finds him going into a mosque. It was the month of Ramadan. The Stork's hated Muslims. The Great Socialist was now the CM of the state and visited the Storks. The CM threatens the Stork to pay Rs 25 Lakhs in bribes as she allows them to mine coal without paying any royalties.

Ashok and Pinky make plans to move to Delhi, where Ashok will bribe the Indian politicians from opposition parties so that his family would avoid paying tax money on mining and to reduce their dependence on The Great Socialist. Mukesh did not think much of Pinky, even though she was a doctor from NYU, and believed that women belong in the bedroom. Mukesh accompanies them for Ashok's first few political meetings. Balram, wanting to drive for them in Delhi, exposes the secret of the family's primary driver: he is a Muslim. After the primary driver is fired (due to the family's stereotypical prejudice against Muslims), Balram joins the couple in Delhi. In contrast to other members of their family, Ashok and Pinky generally treat Balram with respect and eventually become closer to him, though they still view him as a servant. Balram is given space to sleep with the other drivers in the garage of their apartment complex. Eventually, Mukesh goes back to Dhanbad and Balram is left behind with Ashok. Balram finds out that Ashok had no plans of returning to NYC, which was not discussed or agreed with Pinky. Balram becomes Ashok's companion. They play tennis and video games together and Ashok asks Balram to address him by name. He would secretly stand outside Ashok's room and hear him have sex with Pinky.

Ashok and Pinky go to Laxmangarh to visit Ashok's uncle. But then, Balram had to face his family too. He had not sent money home since he moved to Delhi. Kusum tells Balram that it is time for him to get married. Balram refuses to get married and leaves. Balram believes that Ashok has a plethora of opportunities to set up a business but knows that Ashok can afford to waste them.

In Delhi, on Pinky's birthday, she and Ashok get drunk and force Balram to let Pinky drive, which results in her accidentally hitting and killing a child. Balram immediately takes control of the car and drives Ashok and Pinky away from the accident site. Back in the garage, Balram washes away all the evidence from the car. The Stork family coerces Balram into signing a confession endorsed by his grandmother. Ultimately, nothing comes of it, but Balram is left shaken, and for the first time, is fully aware of how disposable he is to his employers.

Pinky leaves Ashok to return to New York, leaving Balram to emotionally support him. When Ashok finds out that Balram dropped Pinky to the airport, he hits Balram. Balram has had enough as he believes that Pinky leaving is not his fault and hits back. Balram realizes that loyal service to Ashok was no guarantee of a comfortable life once his services were no longer needed. He is livid with himself that he signed a confession and didn't even think to ask of anything monetary in return. Balram begins to defraud Ashok with fake invoices, while making money on the side by selling the car's petrol and using the car as an unlicensed taxi.

Balram encounters a series of setbacks. He angers the Stork family when he donates change to a beggar. Balram's grandmother unexpectedly sends one of his younger nephews to live with him in order to learn how to become a driver. Balram also learns that his grandmother is following through with her plans to get him married against his wishes. Meanwhile, Ashok prepares to pay a particularly large bribe, while also arranging to imminently replace Balram with a new driver. The Great Socialist wins the elections against all odds and demands a bribe of Rs 40 Lakhs from Ashok.

Balram has an epiphany on how to escape servitude as the "white tiger". To obtain the bribe money, Balram murders Ashok with a broken whiskey bottle and flees the city with his nephew and the money. An arrest warrant is put out for Balram, but he evades capture.

Balram takes his nephew Dharam (Vedant Sinha) with him to Bangalore, then a bubble for large IT companies. He uses a portion of the stolen cash to bribe the police to eliminate taxi service providers for a lack of licenses. Balram starts his own taxi company, thus becoming wealthy himself. He treats his drivers as employees and not as servants. He takes personal and financial responsibility for any incidents caused by them, even employing a sibling of a child killed in an accident caused by a company driver. He sponsors his nephew's education, while acknowledging that his remaining family back home may have been killed by the Stork's men in retribution.

Happy to escape servitude, Balram reveals at the end of the film that he changed his name to Ashok Sharma.