Rakesh Trivedi (Abhishek Bachchan) comes from a small village. His father is a ticket collector on the train and wants him to get into a similar occupation as well. However, Rakesh has big dreams; he is forever coming up with new business plans and is convinced he will make it big one day. He adamantly refuses any notion that he will one day work in a 9-to-5 environment.
Vimmi Saluja (Rani Mukerji) is the daughter of a Punjabi family in another small village; she spends her hours watching films and studying supermodels. She dreams of becoming Miss India.
Vimmi's parents tell her they have arranged her marriage to a young man with a decent job. At the same time, Rakesh's father gives him an ultimatum â go on the job interview he has arranged or get out of the house.
Rakesh and Vimmi pack their bags and sneak out in the dark of the night. They bump into each other at a train station and become friends after realising their stories are similar. They support and encourage each other to achieve their dreams: Vimmi tries to enter the Miss India contest but gets thrown out after an argument. Rakesh tries to sell his ideas for an investment scheme, but a businessman turns him away. In fact, a man he had met at a restaurant stole ideas from Rakesh's presentation file and, when he enters the office, the interviewer states someone before him came in with the same idea. After finding out that the businessman who Rakesh approached has used his idea to make money, he and Vimmi con him and take money they believe is rightly theirs.
Once they realise how easy it is to con people, they decide to run some more cons to raise money to make it to Bombay.
Unfortunately for India, they find the lifestyle too exciting to give up. Adopting the names of 'Bunty' and 'Babli', they successfully pull off con after con, looting rich people dressed as local guides, religious priests, health inspectors, business partners, etc. Their flamboyant antics make them famous in newspapers nationwide. Soon their friendship leads to romance and they decide to continue conning the rich as husband and wife.
Little do Rakesh and Vimmi know that ACP Dashrath Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is catching up with their cons and pranks, getting closer each day. He relentlessly pursues them across India in the hopes of putting them behind bars. To complicate matters, Rakesh and Vimmi have a child and, after a very close call eluding Dashrath, they decide to quit conning for their child's sake. This decision leads to their capture by Dashrath. While in custody, their heartfelt confessions and conversation soften the policeman's heart and he lets them go, certain he has destroyed Bunty and Babli's career as criminals.
Three years later, Dashrath rescues them from their mundane domestic lives by offering them to work for the nation thwarting the activities of other scammers.
Where were they trying to raise money to go to?
Bombay