The film opens up from the historic partition of Bangladesh. Starving, two kids get food and work for a man named Lateef who tells them to smuggle guns to other men. He cares for them until one day an army officer that they give guns to tells Lateef to leave one of the two boys behind to work as his child sex slave. He says otherwise he''ll take Lateef''s daughter to work for him. Bikram, one of the kids, hears this and tells Lateef that he''ll stay behind. Bala, the other boy, comes back for Bikram and kills the army officer. The two boys then run away, as Lateef is killed by police. They arrive in Kolkata by train and start their livelihood by working in a small restaurant. Bala gets into a fight with the owner who slaps him and calls him a refugee. They start looting trains of coal and selling coal in market at lower price.[7]
As they grow up, Bikram (Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) have started looting whole trains. In this process, they kill a famous coal dacoit, Divakar, who calls them "refugees". But their hearts always yearn for their own identity in India. They provide work and help to the poor, thus earning the name Robin Hood. A.C.P. Satyajeet Sarkar (Irfan Khan) is summoned to Kolkata to catch Bikram and Bala. Nandita (Priyanka Chopra), a cabaret dancer, enters the boys'' lives and both Bikram and Bala fall in love with her. They decide that whomever she loves will marry her. Nandita calls them to a theater where Bala gets into a quarrel with a person over a comment on her and subsequently kills the man. Bikram asks Bala to run away for now so that he can be safe and promises not to meet Nandita until he returns. Nandita tells Bikram she is in love with him and if he won''t come to Durga Puja she will never see him. Bikram breaks his promise to Bala to meet Nandita. He comes to the Durga Puja, where Bala finds that Bikram betrayed him. In a rage he shoots at Bikram, but misses and hits Nandita instead. She is hospitalised but survives. The two friends become enemies for Nandita.
Bala is later shocked as all of their business was under Bikram''s name. Bikram agrees to divide the business equally but gets in fight with Bala when the latter mentioned "dividing" Nandita. Bikram defeated Bala but leaves him alive as Bala had saved Bikram in childhood. Bikram and Nandita decide to get married, however, Bala kidnaps Nandita. Enraged, Bikram joins forces with Sarkar & agrees to be a witness against Bala. Bala realizes his mistake and leaves Nandita in the town for her to return to Bikram. Bikram also found out that the man who was "killed" by Bala is alive and a police officer. Nandita is revealed to be a police officer as well. Also, the right-hand-man of Bala is revealed to be the brother of Divakar, as well as Sarklar''s secret agent. Just before Divakar''s brother is able to kill Bala, Bikram comes to his rescue, and they kill Divakar''s brother.
Sarkar and Nandita arrive to the location. Nandita confesses her