Plot

To save his beloved grandpa's printing press from going under, brilliant artist Sunny comes up with an ingenious but dangerous plan. A determined officer, Michael, corners his arch-nemesis, counterfeiting kingpin Mansoor Dalal.

Sunny (Shahid Kapoor) is a poor artist, who assists his grandfather Madhav (Amol Palekar) in running an idealistic printing press Kranti Patrika, alongside his best friend Firoz (Bhuvan Arora). Madhav prints his own newspaper at the press and wants to get his message out to the masses to awaken their spirits. Sunny makes a living selling street art. He forges fakes of famous artists and sells them for cheap. Madhav was a great painter in his own right, who painted many originals, but never got famous.

Employees at the press includes Yasir Chacha (Chittaranjan Giri). Firoz and Sunny had been together since childhood and always dreamed of being rich. Sunny is dating Ananya (Kavya Thapar) and feels that even his rich and glamorous girlfriend is ashamed of his poverty as she won't be seen in public with him. Firoz counsels Sunny that Ananya is the type of girl who will always marry a rich guy, so he is basically someone who is helping her pass the time.

Ananya wants to go to club Velocity on New Year and warns Sunny that it is expensive. Sunny inquires and finds that it costs Rs 27,000 per couple to enter the club. The manager of the club insults Sunny and Firoz and throws them out. So, to celebrate the New Year with Ananya, Sunny organizes a party on his rooftop, along with his friends and invites Ananya to it. Also invited is Anees (Saqib Ayub), Sunny and Firoz's friend and a small-time goon. Dimple (Hariharasudhan Balasubramani) works for Anees. Anees lives with his grandfather Illyas (Samir Khakhar). Ananya says that she just dropped by to say hello and informs Sunny that she and her friends got tickets to Velocity and are headed there. Again, she does not allow Sunny to meet her friends.

Trouble arises when their business is at the risk of bankruptcy as the paper is not selling. The creditors of Madhav want their money back in a month, but the people who borrowed money from Madhav, half of them are dead and the remaining are themselves bankrupt. Madhav leaves the press as a broken man and is worried about the future of the people who worked for him all their lives. Sunny and Firoz meet the creditor Ratanlal Jain (Shiv Dev Singh) and his son Ashirwad (Happy Ranajit). Sunny tries to explain that the paper means everything to Madhav. He also says that back in the day, Madhav helped Ratanlal to set up his business. But Ashirwad is rude to Sunny and gives him a month to repay the debt.

Anees introduces Firoz to Manja (Suyash Zunjurke) who runs a factory producing counterfeit products of famous brands. Manja wants Sunny to produce counterfeit paintings in bulk, in exchange for cash. Sunny says that still it will take forever to make the required amount of money. Disillusioned, Sunny and Firoz decide to print counterfeit 500-rupee notes. The new notes were launched in 2016 with a whole host of security features. They dip their counterfeit notes in tea and dry them to give it texture of a real currency note.

Initially unsuccessful, Firoz is caught when he tries to use the counterfeit at a liquor shop but is immediately caught. Firoz and Sunny manage to escape and try again. Sunny realizes that it is the quality and texture of the paper that is the issue. After looking at thousands of samples, they find the right texture in the yellow pages. They bleach the paper and then print the notes on it. Since the yellow pages is too thin, they have to use 2 sheets to and stick them together to make one note. This time they try to use their note at a liquor shop and succeed.

Meanwhile, a determined officer, Michael (Vijay Sethupathi) (IPS, a Special Task Force officer and head of the Counterfeiting & Currency Fraud Analysis & Research Team (CCFART)), captures his nemesis, counterfeiting kingpin Mansoor Dalal (Kay Kay Menon), in Nepal. Mansoor is a criminal mastermind who heads the counterfeit network in India, based out of Jordan. Bilal (Nilesh Divekar) and Jalal (Saurav Chakraborti) are his henchmen. Michael is supported by Supam (Akkshay Gunaawat) and Shekhar (Jaswant Singh Dalal). Michael had been chasing Mansoor for 6 years now.

However, Mansoor escapes when the police escort is attacked by armed men on motorcycles. During his escape, Mansoor kills Supam. Later, Mansoor kidnaps Sunny and Firoz. Sunny admits that he designed the fake note, and Mansoor shoots Firoz.