In a village in Rayalaseema, the two clans of Bharathasimha Reddy and Veera Shiva Reddy respectively engage in constant violence leading to the deaths of people from both clans. In order to end the violence, a Police inspector allies the families with a marriage proposal of Bharathasimha Reddy's brother Vijayasimha Reddy with Shiva Reddy's sister. However the plan goes awry when, on the night after the wedding, Shiva Reddy's sister kills Vijayasimha Reddy by putting poison in his milk, though she also dies in the process as Vijayasimha asks her to take a sip first. With the betrayal revealed, Shiva Reddy and his men then kill Bharathasimha as well. Shiva Reddy is arrested and goes to prison for 14 years. With both brothers now dead and no other adult male being brave enough to take the place of the brothers as clan leader, Bharathasimha's son, Indrasena 'Indra' Reddy, volunteers himself upon hearing the desperate pleas of his paternal grandmother, setting up a powerful scene in which he takes a sword and sits on the throne to the delight of his grandmother and the rest of the clan.

In 2002, Varanasi, truthful and honest, Shankar Narayana makes ends meet, working as a taxi driver and owns a boat. During a singing competition held in his niece's college, her friend Pallavi, daughter of Uttar Pradesh's governor Chenna Keshava Reddy falls in love with Shankar and starts to live in his home acting as an orphaned girl. Upon finding his daughter missing, Chenna Keshava Reddy investigates and learns that she staying with a taxi driver and he sets out to Shankar Narayana's home and sends out an attack on his family. Upon seeing him, he drops his plans of attacking him and greets him by folding his hands, requesting him to marry Pallavi. However, Shankar Narayana refuses owing to the responsibility of getting his niece Nandini married. An orphaned youth named Giri who has become Shankar Narayana's right-hand man confesses his feelings for Nandini and the latter arranges a marriage between the duo. However, his trust goes in vain as a woman named Snehalatha Reddy gatecrashes the wedding and reveals that Giri is actually Veera Manohar Reddy, son of Veera Shankar Reddy, Shiva Reddy's elder son and Snehalatha addresses Shankar Narayana as Indrasena Reddy perplexing his adoptive family. After the latter and Pallavi confronts Indra, Valmiki, his trusted associate who is misunderstood to be a mute person narrates his past.

Indra / Shankar Narayana is held in high regard in his village where he used to work for the benefits of people and arranged a ritual to assure rains for the droughted village. Shiva Reddy was released from prison and received a letter from Indra, who warned him not to enter the village and cause violence. Enraged, Shiva Reddy gatecrashed the ritual and instigated Indra, who was compelled to kill him for good. Snehalatha Reddy, who happens to be Shiva Reddy's daughter returned from United States at the same time while Veera Shankar Reddy vowed vengeance for killing his father. One day, Indra saved a young boy from being overrun a truck and didn't regret his decision after learning that he is Veera Shankar Reddy's younger son. Unwilling to have a son saved by an enemy, Veera Shankar Reddy kills his own son despite the pleas of his wife and Snehalatha and tells his servant to dump the body in front of Indra's home.

Enraged, Indra carries the boy's corpse back to Veera Shankar Reddy's home and puts Shankar Reddy in his place by powerfully rebuking the latter's act of false pride. Indra allows the boy's mother a chance to see her son for the last time before burying the boy in front of the home and having a "Tulasi" sapling planted over his grave to represent the boy's soul. Indra tells the boy's mother to water the plant daily and simultaneously warns Veera Shankar Reddy that he will be killed if anything should happen to the plant.

Snehalatha fell in love with Indra due to this and told him that she will marry none other than him. Since the town was suffering from drought, Indra consulted Chenna Keshava Reddy, ex-collector of their district and learnt that government needed the lands of Shiva Reddy's family to build a reservoir. Indra had a formal meeting with villagers and Veera Shankar Reddy's family where the latter demanded his whole property and asked him to leave the village forever after the reservoir is built, which Indra accepted and Snehalatha asked him to marry her as compensation since she also had a share in those lands. Indra eventually reciprocated her love after learning that she truly loved him. On the day of the marriage, Veera Shankar Reddy had Indra's sisters and their husbands murdered in a bomb blast orphaning Nandini and her brother Pradeep unbeknownst to Snehalatha. Enraged, Indra murdered Veera Shankar Reddy's three brothers and stabbed him while Snehalatha was manipulated into believing that Indra staged the plan of marriage. To raise his nephew and niece, Indra left his village and came to Varanasi.

At present, Nandini attempts to commit suicide since she is pregnant out of wedlock with Manohar Reddy's child. Upon learning this, Indra returns to his village, and is met by appraisal from everyone. He then barges into Veera Shankar Reddy's home and warns Manohar Reddy that he must make things right by marrying Nandini. Meanwhile, Snehalatha learns the truth from a relative that her brothers had in fact killed Indra's sisters and their husbands on her wedding day. Snehalatha upon hearing this revelation regrets mistaking Indra and tries to take Manohar Reddy to Nandini but is attacked midway. Indra intervenes at the vital moment and fights off the goons, but does not kill Veera Shankar Reddy as he wants to end the cycle of revenge and the fighting between the two clans once and for all. Manohar Reddy marries Nandini, and later Snehalatha and Pallavi both unsuccessfully try to convince Indra to marry them. The film ends with Indra stepping outside his front doorstep and seeing that a large crowd has gathered in front of his home in order to express their support for him and his desire to end the fighting in Rayalaseema once and for all. Indra has devoted his life to the people of Rayalaseema and is unwilling to be distracted from his duty by getting married and having a family.

The audio soundtrack of Indra was released on the evening of 14 June 2002 at a neatly erected set in the first floor of Annapurna Studios. This event was a private affair between Chiru fans and the Vyjayanthi movie unit. The celebrities who graced this occasion were the Paruchuri brothers (dialogue writers), Aswini Dutt (producer), Chinni Krishna (story writer), VSR Swamy (cinematographer), Sirivennela Seetharama Sastry (lyrics writer) and Chiranjeevi. The function started off with a welcome by Raghu Kunche and Suma. Gemini TV covered this event and it was telecast as a 30-minute capsule on Gemini TV. Chiranjeevi selected a coupon from the lucky dip box and called the lucky fan to the stage. Chiranjeevi opened the audio box and handed over the first cassette to that fan, who was so elated that he tried to touch Chiranjeevi's feet, but Chiranjeevi stopped him from doing so. The audio hit the market on 17 June 2002.^[6]

Indra was released on 24 July 2002 on 268 screens, including 223 in Andhra Pradesh, 30 in Karnataka, three in Odisha, and 15 in the United States.^[4][7] It grossed more than ₹51.8 crore on a budget of ₹10 crore.^[1] The film ended up becoming the highest-grossing Telugu films at the time of its release.^[4] It held the record of being the first Telugu movie to collect over ₹20 crores during the first week .

Jeevi of Idlebrain.com gave a rating of 4+1⁄2 out of 5 stating, "First half is a perfect blend of mass and class elements. It's extraordinary. The interval scene gives the right finishing touch to the first half."^[8] A critic from Sify wrote that "On the whole the film is refreshing and a good entertainer with Chiru at his best".^[9]

• Indra is the only movie of Tollywood to have all time records in full run shares (₹29.6 cr share + ₹1 cr audio & home video rights + ₹3 cr satellite TV rights)
• The film had collected a distributors' share of ₹29.6 crore.^[10]
• It had a 50-day run in 156 centres, including nine in Karnataka and two in Odisha.^[11]
• It had a 100-day run in 122 centres, including four in Karnataka.^[12]
• It had a 175-day run in 32 centres^[13] including a 247-day run in Satyam theatre, Adoni.^[13]
• Indra was the 2nd highest grossing Indian film of 2002 after Shahrukh Khan's Devdas.^[14]

Indra is one of the biggest hits in Chiranjeevi's film career. It remained the highest grossing Telugu film at that time.

The film had an excellent run on Hindi television channels through the dubbed version Indra: The Tiger.^[5][2] Saudamini Jain of Hindustan Times wrote in 2015, "For a decade now, the Telugu blockbuster Indra dubbed in Hindi as Indra The Tiger seems to have become a permanent fixture on TV".^[2] TV and film writer Mushtaq Sheikh said of the film, "When I was heading Sahara One (in 2010-11) we had these perpetual, evergreen films: whenever you needed ratings, you could close your eyes and screen them. Indra was one of them."^[2] CEO of Applause Entertainment Sameer Nair noted, “We used to play Indra: The Tiger and our ratings were sorted for two weeks."^[5]

• Indra at IMDb