Pushpa: The Rise – Part 1

PUSHPA: THE RISE - PART 01 [Hindi] is the story of a badass working in the red sandalwood smuggling industry. In the forest of Seshachalam, the smuggling of red sandalwood goes unabated. The red sandalwood is cut from here and taken illegally to Chennai from where it is shipped to China and even further to Japan. Pushpa Raj (Allu Arjun) is an illegitimate child of Muletti Venkatraman, a rich landlord in a village. The latter never accepted Pushpa and his mother, Parvati Devi. After his death, his biological son threw the mother-son duo out of their house given by Muletti and left them to fend for themselves. Pushpa grows up doing odd jobs. He has a lot of attitude and hence, gets kicked out of a job. While waiting for his next daily wage job, he finds out that the red sandalwood business pays a lot although the risk is also way higher. He joins the industry as a woodcutter. One day, the police raids while they were busy cutting the wood. Pushpa single-handedly hides the precious red sandalwood from them and doesn't even open his mouth even though the cops beat him black and blue. Konda Reddy (Ajay Ghosh) runs the smuggling business and Pushpa Raj is their labourer. When he finds out about Pushpa's bravery, he sends his younger brothers, Jolly Reddy (Dhananjay) and Jakka Reddy, to get his bail done. Pushpa demands Rs. 5 lakhs to reveal the place where he hid the red sandalwood. The brothers agree. Soon, he becomes an important member in Konda Reddy's gang as he tells them innovative ways of transporting the red sandalwood while avoiding the prying eyes of the police. On the other hand, Pushpa falls for Srivalli (Rashmika Mandanna), who runs a milk business. Meanwhile, Konda Reddy sells the red sandalwood to Mangalam Srinu (Sunil). Srinu is the one who gets the consignment safely to Chennai. Pushpa learns that Srinu earns as much as Rs. 2 crore for every ton of red sandalwood that he sells to Murugan at Chennai port. Srinu, however, pays just Rs. 25 lakhs per ton to Konda Reddy. Pushpa suggests to Konda Reddy that Srinu should insist that he should be paid more. Konda Reddy is apprehensive as he feels it'll strain his relations with Srinu. Also, Srinu can be quite a menace. Hence, he sends Pushpa to talk to Srinu. At Srinu's place, all goes wrong and it signals the beginning of a long bloodbath between the two gangs. What happens next forms the rest of the film.