The film starts in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where a coach says “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag!” The runner is taken back to the memories of his childhood days which haunt him, resulting in him dropping to fourth. The Partition of India in 1947 caused chaos which resulted in mass religious violence in Punjab in British India, killing the parents of Milkha Singh (Farhan Akhtar)..