The film begins in the mid-1960s and ends in 1991 (as evident with a newspaper date in the film). Raees (Shah Rukh Khan) lives in Fatehpur, Gujarat, a state where alcohol prohibition is in force, and gets involved in illegal liquor trade at a very young age. Along with Sadiq (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub), he works for a gangster Jairaj (Atul Kulkarni), who smuggles alcohol illegally by bribing the police. Raees lives by the philosophy of his mother (Sheeba Chaddha): every occupation is good, and no religion is greater than any occupation as long as it does not cause any harm to anyone.