Journalist Anand Ingalagi’s book El Dorado, which detailed the events at the Kolar Gold Fields between 1951 and 2018, was banned by the Indian government, and all published copies were burnt. However, a television news channel procures a copy and interviews him. Ingalagi narrates that government-commissioned officials discovered gold ore in the southern part of India’s Mysore State (in present-day Kolar district, Karnataka) in 1951. Rocky was also born on the day of the discovery in the Mysore region to a poor widow. Suryavardhan, a local don who accompanied the officials, killed them. Anticipating the increasing Cold War demand for gold by the United States and the Soviet Union, Suryavardhan deceitfully sets up a company, Narachi, on that land, bought for a 99-year lease under the pretext of mining limestone.
He has five associates, all of whom operate away from KGF: Kamal, the son of a former associate, Bharghav; Andrews; and Rajendra Desai, who oversees operations in the Konkan and Malabar Coast, respectively; from Bangalore, Guru Pandian, a powerful politician and president of the DYSS party; and his brother, Adheera. However, each of them has their eyes on the mines. Shetty, Andrews’ underboss, is a gold smuggler in Bombay, though another rival smuggler, Dubai-based Inayat Khalil, also has his eyes set on the city.
Rocky arrives in Bombay as a ten-year-old on a quest for power and wealth, as desired by his dying mother, and begins to work for Shetty. Years later, he becomes Shetty’s right-hand man, and with an iron fist, oversees the arrival of African gold bars to the Bombay coast. Rocky soon rises in strength and power, rivaling Shetty’s own. This attracts the attention of Andrews, who offers him Bombay in return for assassinating Garuda, Suryavardhan’s elder son, who is to inherit KGF after his now-paralyzed father’s passing. Rocky accepts the offer and heads to Bangalore, where a political event is staged for the purpose. Once there, he witnesses the sheer presence, authority, and power that Garuda commands to have the attempt averted.