Chingaari is set in Rangpur a far and forgotten village in rural India. Laibatti a red light den, is the place where night queen crawl out of the dark rooms to make a man's day. Basanti is a prostitute, who sells her body but not her soul. Chandan is a postman, who along with letters delivers his heart to Basanti. After nights of lust, Basanti finally finds love, Bhuvan Panda is a demon trapped in a man's body. He's less of a priest, more of a beast. Villagers worship as well as fear as fear him. Wicked as wolf and poisonous as snake. Bhuvan extorts money, sex and power. The story takes turn when Bhuvan gets to know that Basanti and Chandran are in love.

CG (Ajay Devgan) is the man who started with nothing and now believes that only money can fuel his ambition. While Guruji (Jawed Sheikh), to the manor born, believes that wealth means nothing if not used for the good of society. Caught in the tussle between the two is the unworldly, Jaidev Vardahn (Shahid Kapoor) who while respecting his father's philosophy, falls hook, line and sinker for CG's gift-edged dreams. WHile Guruji hopes that Jai will return to his roots. CG uses the glamorous Natasha (Bipasha Basu) to bewitch Jai and an unscrupulous politician, to exploit the tribals into selling their lands. Madhavi (Amrita Rao) watches the man she loves being trapped in a world of wine, women and wealth.

Pooja Dharamchand is the daugther of the shipping millionaire Dharamchand. The money and pampering has made her into an arrogant, spoilt and willful teenager. She wants to marry Deepak Kumar, a filmstar but Dharamchand would have none of it. She escape from her father's ship and begins to make her, way to Bangalore where Deepak is shooting. She meets a news reporter, Raghu Jaitly, Pooja loses her purse, misses the bus Raghu misses the bus to be with her as he senses a news story. This mutual need turns to fondness and fondness grown into love as they face every obstacle together. By the end of journey, Pooja is hopelessly in love with Raghu.