Plot

A long-standing rivalry with the police is ignited. A rift with a senior officer launches an extensive manhunt.

Muthulakshmi is Veerappan's wife. Veerappan was charged with killing 119 people and for 2 decades, the state police of 2 states was not able to capture him. He held 2 states to ransom. He was not an insurgent or a terrorist. The hunt for Veerappan was one of the costliest manhunts in the history of India.

1989, Veerappan was a hunter of elephants. He is on the watch list of forest and police officials but was never caught as he kept escaping. Muthu was 15 years old when she married Veerappan, who was 39 years old. Veerappan operated in the jungles of MM Hills. Sunaad is an investigative journalist.

Veerappan lived in the village of Gopinatham, on the border of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. The village is poor, illiterate and hungry. The only way out was to take advantage of the forest wealth all around them. BK Singh was the DFO for the MM Hills forest, when Veerappan operated there. The forest is spread across 15,000 square kilometers.

Veerappan operated gangs to hunt for elephants. His gang was called Mahalingam. Money poured in, but elephants had to die for it. He killed over 1000 elephants. BK Singh created a rival gang and supplied guns to the gang to hunt for Veerappan. The entire gang was eliminated by Veerappan. Police could not act, and the forest department was powerless to enter MM Hills without protection.

After elephants, Veerappan went after Sandalwood trees. MM Hills had a huge abundance of Sandalwood. Sandalwood was always state property, and its oils and fragrance had a huge demand. The smuggling business grew as the money started flowing again. Veerappan was coined the "Forest King" by the public. Veerappan used to hold courts for villagers to bring their issues and dispensed justice. He was protected by rings and rings of sentries all around him. Within 6 months, the forest had no sandalwood trees left in them. The forest department gets support from the police, and they plan a joint operation. The entire load of sandalwood is captured and Veerappan's trucks and equipment are burned down.

The authorities got 65 tons of sandalwood. Veerappan starts to retaliate and kills 4 police officers who had entered the jungle in a jeep. Veerappan had challenged the State machinery itself. In 1990, the Karnataka government sets up a Special Task Force (STF) to nab Veerappan. Tiger Ashok Kumar was appointed as the head of the STF. Tiger started combing operations all over the forest, forcing Veerappan and Muthu to go into hiding.

The STF was not trained for the forest terrain. There was no water in the summers and extreme cold in the winters. Despite many officers coming and going, Veerappan was still at large. P Srinivas was a forest officer who was interested in reforming criminals. He wanted Veerappan to surrender. Srinivas built relationship with the family members of Veerappan's gang. Srinivas camped in Gopinatham and slowly, the whole village came to be in love with him. He cleaned the temple and renovated it, built houses for people who did not have it, gave medicines to the sick, drove pregnant women to the hospital for delivery and so on.

Muthu had a different take. She says that Srinivas was putting on an act. He knew that he had to displace Veerappan as the godfather of the village. Slowly Srinivas was starting to get information on Veerappan's operations and whereabouts. Srinivas is able to corner Veerappan and Muthu is Bodhamalai based on the information from villagers. Muthu was pregnant and Veerappan asks her to surrender. Veerappan is able to escape as Srinivas had told the police not to shoot Veerappan. But Srinivas did make 20 gang members surrender that day.

In 1991, Muthu was in police custody and looking to go back to Veerappan. Muthu left her daughter with her parents and joined Veerappan in the jungle. The STF officers were furious with Srinivas for not letting them kill Veerappan and now for Muthu's escape. BK Singh says that the STF was ineffective against Veerappan and only Srinivas had made this progress. So, the entire STF was making stories against Srinivas. Mari was Veerappan's sister and Srinivas gave her the job of a nurse. STF made up stories that Srinivas is having an affair with Mari. The rumors spread.

Veerappan was furious and write to Mari to kill Srinivas. Mari was questioned by the police for being in touch with Veerappan. Mari was scared and consumed poison and died. Veerappan blamed Srinivas for Mari's death. Arjunan was Veerappan's brother. Srinivas planned to use Arjunan to convince Veerappan to surrender. Veerappan agrees and asks Arjunan to bring Srinivas to him. As Srinivas came to the jungle, Veerappan gunned him down. He cut his arms and then burned his body. Then Veerappan cut his head off. This turned the village against Veerappan as they felt Srinivas was a good man.