Plot

Spanning the 1970s and 1980s, this is the sensational true story of Arun Gawli, who grew up in Mumbai's impoverished Dagdi Chawl, to become a dreaded don, politician, and rival of India's most powerful crime boss, Dawood Ibrahim.

In 1982, when Mumbai mills started shutting down, many unemployed young men took to the world of crime, one of them being Arun Gawli. Gawli started gambling in Matka dens on the insistence of his friends Rama Naik and Babu Reshim but to earn quick money the gang started killing people for extortion where he finds him in the books of a Don Maqsood Bhai. After Babu Reshim's death, Rama Naik takes over the gang and runs with Gawli who's fondly called Daddy, and develops a rivalry with Maqsood. Gawli marries his sweetheart Zubeida, who asks him to leave the world of crime, but Gawli takes over the gang after Rama Naik gets killed by a rival gang.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com

In the 1960s and late 1970s, Mumbai's textile mills were shutting down one after the other. Many unemployed youths including Arun Gulab Gawli (Arjun Rampal) resort to Matka-gambling on the insistence of his friends, Rama Naik (Rajesh Shringarpure), Vijay (Purnanand Wandekar) and Babu Reshim (Anand Ingale), to earn some quick buck and form their own gang. Arun lives with his mother (Usha Naik). Arun's father was a textile mill worker who got laid off. Arun has feelings for his neighbor Zubeida. Hilda (Anupriya Goenka) was a friend of Zubeida, who had a crush on Arun. Since Arun only had eyes for Zubeida, Hilda went with Rama.

In 1979, Rama steals money from gambling den owner Parsiya, and Parsiya kills Uma, Rama's brother. Rama asks for Arun's help for the counterattack, which goes wrong, and Arun commits his first murder to escape. He is later arrested, but released as no-one would testify against him.

Soon, Gawli finds himself getting trapped in a vortex of crime when he is taken under the wings of Maqsood Bhai (Farhan Akhtar loosely modeled on Dawood Ibrahim) after committing the murder. Maqsood asks Babu and gang to kill a Pathan for him, but Arun asks for a share in the dock area revenues from the area of Agripada from Maqsood. He wants equality. Arun asks Babu to talk to Maqsood for the partnership. Vijay is not given a share, as he is considered a weak shooter.

In 1987, Babu gets out of hand when he beats up a prostitute who is close to Maqsood. Maqsood gets Babu's childhood friend Vijay to beat him to death inside the lockup. Maqsood doesn't reveal to Arun that he was the one who ordered Babu's death. Further, their clashes of ideologies and power game turn them against each other. Rama & Arun seek out Babu's friend Vijay who killed Babu. Immediately Arun & Rama find themselves in a police shootout led by Inspector Vijaykar Nitin (Nishikant Kamat), whom Arun shoots in the foot & uses him as a human shield to escape. Arun sees Maqsood's main henchman standing behind the police dragnet and realizes that Maqsood was the one who set them up. Arun shoots Vijaykar in the head but was out of bullets and Vijaykar survives. Vijaykar, now with a permanent limp, vows to bring Arun to justice one day.

Arun meets a religious Baba for protection, who refuses to go back to a life of crime but gives Arun 2 shooters Sada (Shrikant Yadav) and Newman (Abhimanyu Arun).

Meanwhile, Gawli marries his sweetheart Zubeida (Aishwarya Rajesh). Post wedding Maqsood and Arun try to make amends on the day of Eid. They also make it a rule not to involve family members in matters related to business. Maqsood wants Arun to open up the docks area for his supply of cocaine in return of a 25% share. Arun doesn't trust Maqsood. Zubeida coaxes him to leave behind his murky profession and reveals that she is pregnant. He almost makes up his mind to turn clean.

Rama is killed in a brutal police encounter (led by Vijaykar), in 1988. Gawli witnesses his murder from a hidden place and takes charge of their gang based in Dagdi, Mumbai. He suspects that Rama's killing was engineered by Maqsood and thus begins a gruesome gang war between them.

In 1988 Arun openly attacks Maqsood at a mosque and Maqsood retaliates by attacking Arun in his fortress in Dagdi, which results in the death of Arun's brother. In 1989 Maqsood leaves for Dubai. In 1991, After Maqsood leaves India, Vijaykar arrests Arun and Arun goes willingly as he knows he will be the safest in police custody. But soon enough Maqsood sends his hit-men inside the jail as well.

In 1993, riots hit Mumbai and Arun makes sure that all Muslims were safe in Dagdi. This was the start of his political career. For 10 years Arun moves from one jail to another to keep himself safe. This was all arranged by Zubeida.

After 10 years, he decides to run for MLA from Dagdi, and takes on the nickname Daddy when her daughter calls her Daddy on stage in front of thousands of people in a rally. A party MLA named Mhatre meets Arun to ask him to join their party, in exchange for police protection. When Arun asks to meet with his boss, the Chief Minister, Mhatre is offended and insults Arun. Arun campaigns on the plank of working for the common folks and woks on their most basic needs of water, food and utilities. The people love Arun for the work he does and his approachable nature.

When Arun is elected MLA, Mhatre again insults Arun by openly asking for a petition not to provide police protection to Arun. In exchange Arun has him assassinated. In 2011, As Arun is getting very powerful, the Chief Minister summons Vijaykar to bring Arun to justice. Vijaykar investigates all the murders that Arun conducted in his past. Yet, as before, nobody agrees to testify against him. Zubeida meets Vijaykar and informs him that if Vijaykar had not killed Rama, Arun would have walked away from his life of crime and settled into a family life. Vijaykar arrests Phamplet Bandya (Deepak Damle), who was a shooter in Arun's gang and tortures him for information. Bandya used to keep the books for Arun.

Vijaykar gets a witness who spills the beans against Arun in the MLA murder case. Vijaykar raids Dagdi to arrest Arun, but Arun and entire Dagdi opposes the police and Vijaykar has to back down. He is also severely reprimanded by his seniors. As Arun is running for MP, Vijaykar decides to stage an encounter for Arun, but Arun escapes, votes and is elected MP.

In his final act Vijaykar brings the MLA murder case to court and produces false witnesses and a fake evidence chain to prove that Arun gave the orders to assassinate the MLA. Arun is sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012. He is still awaiting an appeal