In 1986, Rayappan, a Tamil Nadu MLA of the ruling party, is delivering a speech at J.K. Nagar, an impoverished suburb in Chennai, where one of the attendants, a pregnant woman, goes into labour.

Singam grows up as an orphan as his mother had died shortly after the birth of his younger sister, Manimegalai, followed by the death of his father due to overdrinking.

Singam's relationship with Manimegalai is quite fraught and strained as the former blames her for their parents death and the latter disapproves of the former's obsession towards Rayappan, for whom he even sold her mother's only nosepiece for party promotions.

Singam manages to emerge as Rayappan's favourite within a short span of time by employing hilarious techniques and his friend Vasu's ideas.

Frustrated at being sidelined, an infuriated Mangalam brandishes a bottle at Singam's head; he is subsequently expelled from the ruling party for his ruthless behaviour.

Now enters Damayanthi and Mayor into the fray, who run an illegal construction and money laundering firm for corporate companies under the pretext of NGO named Aashirvaad Foundation.

In the hospital, Singam realises his folly for betraying trust of his people against their love they showered over him over the years and inspired by Vasu and the final video recording of his alter ego in which he reveals the hideout of remaining money through Vasu, he reconciles with Manimegalai after thrashing her pervert boss who sexually abused many women thereby shaving is head in public and slowly regains his reputation to emerge as the people's favourite MLA candidate in upcoming state elections by performing his duties with the money he stoved away.

[9] At the special event to commodate the success of '96, Lalit announced their project being tentatively titled as Thuglak and will be helmed by debutant filmmaker Delhi Prasad Deenadayalan, an assistant of Balaji Tharaneetharan.

[10] The film, officially titled Tughlaq Durbar, was launched on 3 August 2019,[12] with Parthiban, Aditi Rao Hydari,[13][14] Gayathrie and Manjima Mohan[15] announced to play pivotal characters.

[31] The film premiered directly through Sun TV on 10 September 2021, coinciding with the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi,[32] and began streaming on Netflix from the following day.