Varun Subramanyam (Vijay Deverakonda) is a video game designer living in the United Kingdom. He is the son of Vinodhan Subramanyam (Nassar (actor)), the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. When consequences make Vinodhan resign his post, he decides to pass it on to Varun, who is visiting Chennai for his birthday to be celebrated in the orphanage which he runs and also to see his little stepsister. Now being made the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Varun, who has no idea about all this, accepts for it, provided that his father will be out in two weeks and he being remained as house arrest. However, Varun actually does nothing except play video games in his room. Unfortunately, consequences turn plates negatively to Vinodhan who is sentenced to prison. After Vinodhan gets arrested, riots take place in the city. In the riots, a bus gets burnt in which a little schoolgirl dies in the fire. Varun, who was out to meet his guru Mahendran (Sathyaraj), goes to the spot where the bus was burnt. He asks Mahendran to meet him at the spot. He is heartbroken upon seeing the wails of the little girl's mother. He then realizes the importance of his position and stops the riots, by threatening, in an immediate press meeting on the accident spot. Unfortunately, this is not liked by the opposition party led by Varadarajan (K. S. G. Venkatesh). Varun then gains the name "Rowdy CM" given by the opposition party after being mocked as "Dummy CM". This incident paves way for Varun to gain support.