
Out of his desire to become a student, his mother rents the baby sister for beggars, to pay fees. Ramachandra was born to a poor illiterate family and his father abandoned them after his sister's birth. This was because Ramachandra saw Raja sleeping on the same enclave-side bench, where he had slept without having anything else than the thought of providing quality education to all, 40 years ago. He thinks that he managed to get a seat due to his own abilities. He gains admission for an MBA program at the Ramachandra College in Mumbai, though he was in 41st rank, in admission tests, for the 40 member class, courtesy of the college chairman, Dr.Ramachandra ( Nassar), but he doesn't realize this at first. Three years ago, he reaches Mumbai, where he plans to get admitted into the prestigious Ramachandra College of management, one of the most premier institutes in the nation. Due to insistence, Raja goes into a flash back. Raja talks with a man ( Manivannan in the Tamil version, Anupam Kher in the Hindi version) in the station. Then the movie resumes at a train station on New Year Day, 1999. Raja heeds his mom's pleas and moves to Mumbai to attend under graduate entrance exam at Ramachandra Institute of Management Studies, the top-most premier b-school in India. Raja's mom begs him to move to Mumbai to start a new life.


But he refuses to fund him, and orders him to start work as accountant for their landlord. But, Raja's mother forced his father to let Raja finish high school, without doing any other work. Raja's family struggles to survive hard every day. He spends half of the family's income on alcohol.


There, poor boys are made to work from age five, either at factories or farms, so that they can support their families. People from his region consider that "education is meant only for the rich". Raja ( Kunal) is from a very poor, illiterate family, from Tamil Nadu (in the Hindi version he is from Allahabad).
