Plot

When greed paves the way for betrayal, scheming and murder, a young tribal reluctantly dons the traditions of his ancestors to seek justice.

Depicting Supreme God Vishnu's third incarnation on earth called Varaha avatar. The forest tribal community devote to Varaha and considers Bhootha Kola (divine dance of coastal Karnataka) performer to Rudra (Lord Shiva) who is gatekeeper of the community and protects every devotee of Lord Varaha from evil spirits (living/dead). A promise of ancestors is under threat to be breached by people over lust of materialistic gains where the ancient King had made deal with demigods as bargain for his peace. With such powerful story line, excellent performance by every actor keeping raw background showing beautiful traditional practices of coastal Karnataka in an ultimate showdown of good vs evil.

In 1847, a King is happily living with his family and empire but what he does not have is peace and goes to search it at various places. He comes to a tribal village where he sees Daiva which could offer him peace but he has to give some forest land to the tribal people in order to seek peace. The King agrees but the tribals warn him that Daiva's family will follow their deity and if anyone goes back from their word it will lead to wrath. Many years later in 1970, the village is living as per the word of the King by performing Bhootha Kola festival where the deity turns a temporary God and tries to solve village problems but the current successor of the King has become greedy and wants the land back. In 1990, 20 more years later, it's revealed that the King's successor who tried to take the land back died a mysterious death. Shiva, a troublesome villager is the current successor of Bhootha Kola but refuses to do it since twenty years back he saw his father disappear while doing the act. Murali, a forest officer, tries to convey that the village land comes under forest and anyone objecting and breaking rules will face the brunt, while he also objects to Kola festival. But Shiva who works for Sahib, current successor of the King, objects to Murali and a rift is created between the two. While Murali and Shiva are thirsty for each other's blood, they realize a shocking truth that they all are scapegoats in a plan.—alex.mjacko@gmail.com

In 1800s, a King trades his forest land to a demigod for peace of mind. The demigod gives the land to the tribals and warns the King that should he or his descendants seek to get the lands back there would be disastrous consequences. Cue 1990 and there's conflict between government, land owners, descendants and tribal over the ownership of forests. Myth and reality conflate to yield a rousing resolution.—guru-krishnan

In 1847, there lived a king (Vinay Biddappa) that had a great kingdom as well as a loving wife (Pragathi Rishab Shetty) and child, but could not find peace. He sets out on a journey to discover true happiness and comes upon a stone in a forest occupied by Panjurli Daiva, a deity that protects the villagers that reside in the forest. He donates vast amounts of his land to the villagers in exchange for taking the stone with him. Panjurli warns the king that his family and successors should keep their word and not reclaim the land, which will incur the wrath of Panjurli's companion, the ferocious Guliga Daiva.

In 1970, the King's successor asks a Bhoota Kola performer, who is possessed by Panjurli to make the locals hand over the land to him, which the performer refuses and states he will die vomiting blood if he tries to. The successor now lives in the city and knows that the value of the land has increased multi-fold. He needs to money to reclaim his lost royal status and lifestyle. The successor raises doubt on performer's possession by Panjurli, to which the performer replies he would vanish if he is possessed, after which he runs into the forest and is indeed never seen again. As warned, the king's successor dies mysteriously, vomiting blood a few months later on the steps of the court, where he was going to argue the land case.

In 1990, Murali (Kishore), a forest officer, is tasked with converting the villagers' land into a forest reserve. However, he is challenged by Shiva (Rishab Shetty), a Kambala athlete from the Kaadubettu village and the missing performer's son. Shiva is backed by his patron and the village's landlord, Devendra Suttooru (Achyuth Kumar), who is the king's successor in the present. Although Shiva is continually asked to perform the Bhoota Kola, he refuses due to the trauma of his father's disappearance. Sudhakara (Pramod Shetty) is Suttoo's PA. Sudhakara had rigged the results of the Kambala buffalo races to ensure that Shiva came in 2nd and Suttoo's buffaloes came first. Shiva beats up Sudhakara publicly and forces Suttoo to declare him the winner with a medal and motorbike as the prize. Kamala (Manasi Sudhir) is Shiva's mother. Shiva and his friends (Lacchu (Ranjan Saju), Raampa (Prakash Thuminad)) hunt wild boars on the forest land, while the villagers get supplies for Bhoot Kola from the forest. Murali objects to all of this and wants to fence off the forest area at the earliest. Devendra knows that Murali is tasked with identifying and fencing off the forest reserve. He tries to cozy upto Murali, but Murali is not a compromising type of person.

Shiva's cousin Guruva (Swaraj Shetty) takes his place at the hoot Kola. Murali and his staff start erecting a fence along the earmarked forest reserve. Shiva falls in love with a woman named Leela (Sapthami Gowda) and uses his connections with Devendra to appoint her as a forest guard. Leela also falls for Shiva and they both have sex. The villagers try to stop the fencing but the police and forest guards (including Leela) brutally suppress them, creating a rift between Leela and Shiva even though she was following orders and could do nothing about the situation. Murali wants the villagers to relocate their village outside of the forest area. Meanwhile Devendra helps launch a legal defense by gathering all the property papers of the villagers, to prove that the village is not an encroachment on the forest land. Devendra is helped by his lawyer (Naveen D Padil). Shiva continues to help DEvendra by helping him cut down trees inside the forest and transporting the wood outside to Devendra's mills.

As the feud between Murali and Shiva intensifies, Murali decides to arrest Shiva and his friends and heads to their hideout along with Devendra's henchman Surendran (Deepak Rai Panaaje). However, Shiva and his friends who were cutting down a tree accidentally destroy Murali's jeep in the process, and thinking they killed everyone inside, go into hiding. A few days later, they return to the village to meet their families; Shiva makes up with Leela and tells her that he will surrender. However, they are caught by the police and forest guards the morning after. Guruva asks Devendra to bail Shiva, but Devendra tries to bribe him to act as if Panjurli orders the villagers to give him their land in the next Bhoota Kola. Guruva refuses and Devendra kills him; learning that Murali has figured out his ulterior motive, Devendra decides to set Shiva against him. Murali finds out that Devendra has got all the villagers to transfer their land in his name, and now Devendra is the one responding to the court notices on evacuation of the village. Murali figures out a way to declare the reserve forest boundary which will make all of Devendra's papers null and void.

Having learned about Guruva's death, Shiva meets Devendra, who lies about Murali being Guruva's killer. Enraged, Shiva goes to kill Murali, but learns from his friend Mahadeva the blacksmith that Devendra himself killed Guruva. Shiva is attacked by Devendra's henchmen, but manages to escape and meet the villagers, whom Murali has told about Devendra's land seizure. After Shiva reveals that Devendra killed Guruva, he and Murali set aside their grudge and unite the village. Devendra and his henchmen attack, leading to an intense battle where several of the villagers are killed. After nearly dying in the fight, Shiva hits his head against Panjurli's stone, gets possessed by the Guliga Daiva, and kills Devendra and his henchmen.

A few months after the battle, Shiva performs the Bhoota Kola where he is possessed by Panjurli. He, Murali, and the villagers join hands in a symbolic gesture and blesses the villagers and he then disappears into the forest after meeting what seems to be his father's spirit. The film ends with Shiva and Leela's son asking Sundara about his father's disappearance and Sundara narrating the same.