Plot

A mighty sea warrior takes a violent stand against the criminal deeds of his village. Years later, his mild-mannered son walks a path of his own.

A cop trying to trace a gangster reaches a village where the sea is called Laal Samundar he is asked to meet Bahira.But Bhaira attacks him and villagers refuse to corporate until an old man Singappa comes to his aid the cop sees that underneath the sea there are lot many dead bodies which shocks him.Singappa tells him that the sea was ruled by Devara who along with Bahira and other neighboring villagers would loot containers under the eye of customs for Murgan and Tulsi without knowing what it contains as it was livelihood for their villagers.But Devrara finds that the looted containers would have arms and ammunition used to cause destruction and was also responsible for attacks in his village.Devara decides that further he will stop the loot and also not allow anyone to do but Bahira and others go against him.Devara stays as a guard at the sea coast not allowing anyone to enter.But one fine day Bahira and others plan to eliminate Devara and loot a ship but Devara defeats all of them but goes missing since then.Years later his family is waiting for his return while Bahira is waiting for revenge.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com

Devara, village head created fear in villagers that he is in the sea waiting for them and wouldn't tolerate if anyone does malpractices in sea. When Bhaira the partner of Devara trained and sent his men into the sea for first time to kill Devara and again continue malpractices Vara the son of Devara accompanied them saying that he wanted to take revenge with his father. Devara killed everyone who tried to go on sea for doing malpractices and he shows no mercy even to his own son. Years passed, Bhaira was still on island plotting to take his revenge on Devara. The harsh reality reveals at last who killed Bhaira's men?

In 1996, a high-level meeting is held concerning security threats to the 1996 Cricket World Cup in India from arms dealer Daya and his brother, Yethi. The meeting is chaired by the Home Minister of India (Zakir Hussain). 12 international teams and 3 leaders of their respective nations will be in India for the sports tournament. Daya received large sums of money in his Dubai account and intelligence suggests that Yethi is planning something big during the World Cup.

The police capture Yethi's henchman and interrogate him. They learn Yethi was going to see Muruga (Murali Sharma), a politician-cum-smuggler who operates in Ratnagiri on the Andhra-Tamil Nadu state borders. Going undercover as smugglers, the police led by Officer Shivam (Ajay) head to Ratnagiri to find Yethi. They approach DSP Tulasi (Abhimanyu Singh), who tells them that Muruga is dead, and to visit the Red Sea villages in the Ratnagiri mountains on the Andhra Pradesh-Tamil Nadu border. Tulasi says that all the work was done by the villagers, and Muruga was only a broker. Shivam says that his consignment is coming via sea, which he cannot unload at Bombay docks, hence he needs the help to get the consignment unloaded at sea and brought to land.

They visit Bhaira (Saif Ali Khan), chief of one of the village, and threaten him to smuggle goods, only to be violently rejected by him. Bhaira says that the villagers have given up the smuggling work long ago, but Shivam is adamant. They find Singappa (Prakash Raj), who takes them offshore in a boat. Shivam tries to make an offer to him by showing off a diamond ring which is abruptly thrown into the sea by Singappa. As Shivam dives in to retrieve the ring, he finds human skeletons on the seabed, terrifying him. Singappa starts narrating the story which begins 12 years earlier.

Singappa says that in the ancient past, there was a huge kingdom nestled in the mountains where the Red Sea villages now reside. Any enemy wanting to conquer the Kingdom had to cross the sea. But the King had a huge army perched on the mountain to defend the Kingdom. These were fearless warriors who defended the Kingdom from any invaders from the sea. The sea was turned red multiple times with the blood of the enemies of the Kingdom.

The warriors were the original inhabitants of the Red Sea villages. When the British started looting the country, the warriors would pillage the British ships on sea and brought the wealth back to the people of the village.

But after India became independent, they lose relevance, reduced to becoming smugglers in the infamous Red Sea. Devara (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) is a chieftain of one of the villages and part of the group which smuggles for Muruga from the merchant ships, along with Bhaira. Devara likes with his wife (Shruti Marathe) and mother (Zarina Wahab). Devara has a young son named Vara. Vara has a tough childhood, trying to live up to his father's legacy. As per tradition, the weapons used by the warriors were entrusted only to Devara's village. But Devara had a different philosophy, and he wanted to share the leadership of the warriors with the other villages. But Bhaira opposes this and says that traditions are sacrosanct for a reason. Devara and Bhaira come face to face in the annual warrior's battle, in which Devara defeats Bhaira and orders the weapons to be entrusted to Rayappa's village.

Unknown to Devara and Bhaira, the loot is illegal arms which are used in robberies, and one such incident occurs near their villages when a wedding party is looted and massacred. During a smuggling expedition, they are caught by the coast guard and the commander of the vessel, Irfan (Narain), reveals the items they were smuggling and how he expected honor among the descendants of warriors. Bhaira and his men attack the coast guard officers, but Devara protects them. Things come to a head when Devara and Bhaira have each other on knife point. Bhaira leaves with the consignment, while Devara promises Irfan not to endanger the country anymore.

Devara has a change of heart and decides to cease their smuggling operations, which is not liked by the other chieftains, including Bhaira. Devara refuses to hand over the consignment to Muruga and warns him not to come to the village anymore. The other chieftains hatch plans to kill him but fail. Devara stops the villagers from entering the seas for smuggling. Bhaira decides to kill Devara when he invites him to his brother's wedding to Rayappa's blind sister. Bhaira conspires to get Devara drunk, so he cannot defend himself when the attack starts.

Devara disappears after an attempt on his life (after he kills all the attackers) and writes a message on a rock near the shore that he would continue to stop those who venture into the sea for smuggling. Years pass, and everyone adopts fishing to earn their livelihood as Devara stops those smuggling, while remaining invisible to the villagers. His son, Vara (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), grows up to be timid and soft-spoken, unlike his father, and believes Devara abandoned his family. On the other hand, Bhaira trains a private army to kill Devara. Bhaira takes the young boys under his wings and works towards creating a new, fearless army that can take on Devara. Pasura (Tarak Ponnappa) is Bhaira's son. Pasura lusts after Thangam.

Vara's childhood friend, Thangam (Janhvi Kapoor), is in love with him, but wishes he was more like Devara. Thangam is from a different village and lives her father, Rayappa. At the annual weapons festival, Vara begs Bhaira to return the weapons to Devara's village, but Bhaira refuses and asks Vara to win them in the warriors contest instead. Vara seemingly gets everyone drunk on alcohol and defeats everyone to win the weapons for his village. This shocks Bhaira, as Vara was always very timid and afraid of conflict.

Tulasi and Muruga again offer an opportunity to Bhaira to smuggle for them along with killing Devara, the biggest thorn in their operations. Bhaira and his army lay siege to Devara's home when his mother falls sick. Devara comes one night to meet his mother, but escapes before Bhaira and his men can intercept him.

When Bhaira's men harass Vara's sister, he beats them up in a drunken fury. The following morning, he is accused of killing one of the men, but Vara pleads to Bhaira that he is not responsible. Bhaira tells him to prove it by joining the smuggling operation with his men. He later reveals that he killed his own injured man to get Vara to join them so that he can draw out Devara at sea.

Meanwhile, Devara's wife learns of the smuggling operation and rushes to Singappa to ask him to stop Vara. However, Singappa reveals that Devara has been long dead, and the person who has been attacking the smugglers is actually Vara. He wrote the note on the rock twelve years earlier and pretended to be timid so that everyone would think that Devara is still alive. Meanwhile, Vara attacks Bhaira's men at sea and brings their corpses back to the shore. To instill even more fear in the villagers, Vara also injures himself, in front of Singappa and Devara's loyal aides, as he "went against his father".

When Shivam asks Singappa about Devara's killer, a flashback reveals that he was killed by Vara on the day he supposedly disappeared.