The beginning of the film is set in 1951 in a small village of Idar in Sabarkantha

district, northern Gujarat, where a young man named Gurukant "Guru" Desai
(Abhishek Bachchan) dreams of making it big some day. His father (Rajendra
Gupta), the headmaster of the village school, tells him not to dream and that
dreams never come true. Gurukant decides to go to Turkey and enter the spice
trade; later, he is promoted but refuses the job, as he wants to work for himself.
Back in his village, he marries Sujata (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), mainly because
of the dowry she brings him. Along with Sujata and her brother Jignesh (Arya
Babbar), Guru migrates to Bombay and starts trading in cloth. Gradually, he
expands his business and sets up manufacturing units of his own, under the
name "Shakti Corporation".