Sarkar's other, more upright son, Shankar (Abhishek Bachchan), returns from the United States with his love Pooja (Katrina Kaif) after completing his education there.
One day, a Dubai-based don, Rasheed (Zakir Hussain) tries to strike a deal with Sarkar; he promptly refuses on moral grounds and also forbids him from doing it himself.
When he approaches Sarkar in the dark of the night with the intent of murdering him, Shankar foils his plan and later kills him (establishing justice by the way of his father).
Shankar has also realised that Chief Minister Madan Rathore (Deepak Shirke) also has a part in the attempt to end Sarkar and his rule.
Anita Rajan (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), CEO of an international electrical power firm based in London, holds a meeting with Mike Rajan (Victor Banerjee), her father and boss and Hassan Qazi, as a seemingly shady adviser and facilitator; regarding an ambitious proposal to set up a multimillion-dollar power plant in rural parts of the state of Maharashtra in India.
When Anita asks him for a solution, Qazi states that enlisting the support of Subhash Nagre (Amitabh Bachchan) (commonly referred to by his title of Sarkar), who he describes as a criminal in the garb of a popular and influential political leader, might help their cause.
Apparently Ram Gopal Verma had even shown Raj Thackeray rushes of the film to allay his fears of being wrongly portrayed.
Rowdy had also received equally positive reviews from critics but was a moderate commercial success, grossing approximately ₹8 crores in its full run.