Synopsis
Daanish (Dhanush), a mute whose childhood dream was to become a Bollywood actor, reaches Mumbai to fulfill his dream. He tries to enter the film city there, but gets stopped by the guards there. He trespasses the gate and comes across an Assistant Director, Akshara Pandey (Akshara Haasan), who is amazed by his acting. She approaches a director for requesting a role for Daanish in a film, but the director refuses after he comes to know that Daanish cannot speak.
Daanish and Akshara go to a voice hospital to get his check-up, but doctors declare his vocal chords are fully paralyzed and are unable to be treated. But, they assure him that with their advanced technology, Danish could have a 'voice transfer'. They fit a chip inside Daanish's larynx with which a person could transfer their voice into the chip, and when the person would speak, the words would also come from Danish's mouth. They set out to search for a person who could speak for Daanish every time, when they come across an old drunkard, Amitabh Sinha (Amitabh Bachchan), lying on the footpath. Amitabh also wanted to become an actor but was rejected because of his voice.
Daanish approaches the director again, who agrees to launch him this time, but wanted him to change his name. Daanish searches for a name and concludes on Shamitabh (a portmanteau of DaaniSH and AMITABH), giving credit to the person who provided him with voice. Daanish makes a couple of films and turns out to be a hit actor to which Amitabh realises was only because of him and an ego problem between the two starts to rise which comes to a head after Amitabh pulls a gun on a police and is jailed while Daanish is at London for a lecture at a university. They both separate after a confrontation at the airport and start making their own films, where Daanish plays the role of a mute person and Amitabh dubbing the voice for another actor. Both films fail commercially.
Akshara makes both of them realise they are nothing without each other and gets them together for a film titled Sorry, which she is directing. Meanwhile, Akshara and Daanish tell that they like each other. Amitabh and Daanish are on the way to the venue of the press meet for Sorry, and on the way become engrossed in a fun conversation when their car is hit by a trailer; the accident kills Daanish and damages Amitabh's larynx, rendering him mute.
Some time later, Amitabh paces around Daanish's grave with the script of Sorry, imagining that Daanish is still alive and practising his lines for the film.