Pokiri (2006)

Tollywood Picture Spotlite: Pokiri (2006).

The city of Hyderabad is rife with the nefarious activities of land mafia. There are two rival gangs; one under Ali Bhai(Prakash Raj) who resides in Dubai and controls the operation through his siblings Ajju and Mona, and another operated by local goon Narayan. Both threaten builders and land owners into giving them protection money or property, through force, extortion or murder. Sayed (Sayaji Shinde) arrives as the new Commissioner of Hyderabad and starts cracking down on crime.

Pandu(Mahesh Babu), a thug, is abducted by Mallesh, a member of Ali's gang and his henchmen. Pandu has taken a contract from Narayan to beat up Mahesh, which he does. Ajju invites Pandu to join Ali Bhai's gang. Pandu declines stating that he does not work for any gang, but is ready to do anything given enough money. Pandu falls in love with Shruthi when he visits his cousin's (Ajay) aerobics class, but she mistakes him for a thug. Shruthi, a college student, lives with her widowed mother and younger brother. Bramhi (Brahmanandam) lives above Shruthi's house, and frequently tries to convince Shruthi to marry him. Sub inspector Pashupathy (Ashish Vidyarthi), is a corrupt officer in the colony where Pandu and Shruthi live who often works with the land mafia. He is also on the payroll of Ali Bhai. He falls for Shruthi and decides to make her his mistress.

Pandu's first assignment with Ali's gang is to kill a member of Narayan's band. However, police show up at the spot where Pandu and the other gangsters are waiting. Pandu engages the cops long enough for the others to finish the task and flee. He also helps Shruthi escape from Pashupathy. She is impressed by his kindness and they develop unspoken romantic feelings for each other. When Shruthi tries to expresses her feelings they are attacked by members of Narayan's gang, whom Pandu finishes off. Shruthi is shocked to learn that Pandu is a gangster with no qualms about killing people.

Pashupathy arranges for some thugs to pretend to rape Shruthi, so that no decent family will want to take her as their daughter-in-law; with no other option Shruthi and her mother will accept his demands. Pandu learns of this and assaults Pashupathy incognito, warning him that if he is found responsible for this incident then things will turn ugly for him.

Ali Khan comes to Hyderabad and kills Narayan. He also meets Pandu to discuss the killing of a minister by blowing up a balloon. Pandu disagrees with Ali Bhai's method as it would involve killing innocents. In the middle of their argument police raid the club and arrest Ali Bhai. His gang members retaliate by creating a lewd video of the police commissioner's daughter and releasing it to media. They also kidnap her, forcing the police to release Ali Bhai. Ali Bhai drugs the commissioner's daughter, causing her to reveal that her father placed a mole in Ali Bhai's gang. They find that Pandu's uncle was a police inspector and the inspector's son, Krishna, is now a part of Pandu's gang. Ali Bhai kills Krishna in front of Pandu. However, it is revealed that the person who died was actually Ajay. The actual son of the retired inspector is Pandu. His father explains that Krishna has been masquerading as a corrupt mafia to penetrate the underworld gangs and wipe them out from the inside.

Krishna/Pandu avenges his father's death by finishing off all members of Ali Bhai's gang including Ali Bhai and Pasupathy.

this film has been remade into tamil with vijay as Pokkiri, with salman khan in hindi as "Wanted"