Apaharan is a crime-action drama that revolves around Ajay Shastri (Ajay Devgn), an honest unemployed graduate, who aspires to be a policeman. Ajay borrows a huge amount of money from the moneylender with the help of his friend Kashinath (Ayub Khan) to bribe higher officials to get him into the police force. However, things go awry when the news of a corruption scandal is disclosed to the media. Ajay faces pressure from his creditors and nothing goes as planned. He then decides to kidnap a government official to repay the loan money with the ransom and set everything straight. Problems faced by Ajay during the kidnapping and its after-effects on his life forms the rest of the plot.