Plot summary

Murad Ahmed (Ranveer Singh), a final year college student, lives in the Dharavi slums of Mumbai. His abusive father Aftab Shakir Ahmed (Vijay Raaz) brings home a much younger second wife, much to the chagrin of the family including mother Razia (Amruta Subhash). Murad is involved by his friend Moeen (Vijay Varma) is carjacking, but Murad doesn't like a life of crime.. Murad nurtures a fascination for rap music. His longtime and overtly possessive girlfriend Safeena Firdausi (Alia Bhatt) is training to be a surgeon and routinely meets him in secret. Safeena cant bear Murad speaking to any girl other than herself. She routinely gets into trouble with her dad Nasir (Ikhlaque Khan) and mom Hamida (Sheeba Chaddha), over her relations with Murad (which she hides successfully by lying through her teeth) and her violent behavior.Murad is a big fan of rapping and knows all the intentional chart-busters in this genre. Forced to work part-time as a chauffeur after his father is injured, Murad starts to write, with his lyrics informed by the inequalities he observes while on the job. Making the acquaintance of local rapper Shrikant "MC Sher" Bhosle (Siddhant Chaturvedi) whom he saw performing in his college fest, he is drawn into performing his lyrics at underground shows (which he finds from Sher's Facebook page) and rap battles and eventually uploading a video on YouTube.The start is tough.. Murad shares his writings with Sher, but Sher encourages Murad to perform his own stories. Murad is totally out of his depth, but performs "Apna time Aayega" for the first time.. Sher takes Murad under his wings and mentors him. He introduces him to the world of Rap battles. But the first time Murad goes up in a battle, he takes all the comments personally and is unable to respond. He completely freezes up and runs away. Sher encourages Murad not to suppress his anger and let it speak through his rap. Sher tutors Murad on the nuances of tune and rhythm and this culminates in them recording the song in a studio.. Sher's English girlfriend gives Murad the rapper name "Gully Boy"..Aftab's new wife finds the video online and shows it to Aftab, who slaps Murad and asks him to concentrate on his studies. Ateeq (Vijay Maurya) is Razia's brother and promises to get Murad a sales job once he completes his studies. Aftab wants a RoI on his money and wants Murad to take the job. Razia's frustration with Aftab and his new wife grows (her status in the house is reduced to a mere maid-servant). Berklee College student Shweta "Sky" Mehta (Kalki Koechlin), an evolving musician, reaches out to Murad and Sher after seeing the video, offering to collaborate on a new song. The accompanying video, which is shot in Dharavi, rapidly becomes popular. Murad shares an intimate moment with Sky (they kiss in her car), later lying to Safeena about it. When Safeena finds out, she reacts violently towards Sky by smashing a bottle of beer on her head. Murad has a fight with Moeen, when he sees that Moeen has been using kids to peddle drugs.As a result, she is brought in by the police but is not arrested as Sky doesn't press charges against her. Murad eventually breaks up with Safeena due to her possessive attitude. As Aftab's violence towards him, his brother and his mother escalates, Murad decides to leave home with his mother and brother and work full-time for his uncle Ateeq Khan. Meanwhile Safeena's parents learn about this and her mother stops her college and plans to get her married. Safeena begs her dad not to stop her college as she is a brilliant student and only 1.5 yrs are left. Later, when Sky expresses her romantic feelings for him, he declines her as he still loves Safeena and decides to reconcile with her. Murad cant make ends meet and ends up jacking more cars with Moeen to make some extra cash. Moeen is arrested by the police, but he doesn't rat Murad out. Murad offers Moeen to testify and take the blame, but Moeen tells him that one person from their group has a chance to make it big.. he forbids Murad from mortgaging his future and tells him to make his own destiny.Murad and Sher enter a contest to open for Nas (a world famous rapper) at his Mumbai concert (plus a Rs 10 Lakh prize money), and Murad advances to the finals after a successful rap battle (Interestingly Sher doesn't make it to the finals). Murad's confidence grows from interacting with rap fans' appreciation of his performances, and he finally stands up to Aftab and Ateeq when they belittle his passion. He later gets back together with Safeena. He goes on to win the contest (Performs Apna time Aayega again) and becomes one of India's top rappers. The film ends with his friends, family and Safeena watching him happily as he begins his triumphant opening performance. Murad bails out Moeen with his prize money.