Parmanu – The Story of Pokhran is based on a true story about how India became a nuclear state after covertly building nuclear bombs and testing them in Pokhran desert in Rajasthan in record time and while not letting the world know till finally, the explosions were carried out. The story begins in 1995.

Ashwath Raina (John Abraham) is an IAS officer who feels that India should become a nuclear power but since he is too junior, his seniors poke fun at his idea. However, one of the seniors sees an opportunity to gain brownie points by hijacking Ashwath’s idea and presents it to the prime minister without going through the whole plan. After the PM gives his nod, the plan execution begins in Pokhran (Rajasthan) but since only part of the plan has been taken up for implementation, it hits a roadblock. Worse still, Ashwath is blamed for the faulty plan and suspended from his job. The fact is that the roadblock was not because of a faulty plan but because of the careless execution of the plan without reading Ashwath’s plan in entirety.

Three years later, the new chief secretary to the Prime Minister, Shukla (Boman Irani), appoints Ashwath to head the team which will restart the nuclear work in Pokhran. Taking the code name of Krishna, Ashwath appoints his five Pandavas – five accomplished persons in various fields – Dr. Viraf Wadia (Aditya Hitkari), Major Prem (Vikas Kumar), Dr. Naresh Sinha (Yogendra Tiku), Puru Ranganathan (Ajay Shankar) and Ambalika (Diana Penty) – to help him in making India’s first nuclear bombs. Dr. Viraf Wadia is given the code name of Yudhishtir, Major Prem becomes Bheem, Dr. Naresh Sinha is Arjun, Puru Ranganathan becomes Sehdev, and Ambalika is Nakul. Since the operation is covert, the team can work only during blind spots – when no satellite is crossing India in the skies. Sehdev (Puru Ranganathan) monitors the satellite movements while the others work on the field with workers.

There is a Pakistani spy (Darshan Pandya) in Pokhran, who works in tandem with an American scientist (Mark Bennington). The two soon realise that some serious activity is going on in Pokhran, and the American scientist even informs the lab in the USA about the nuclear experimentation being carried out in Pokhran.

How Krishna (Ashwath Raina) succeeds against all odds and ultimately carries out the first nuclear explosions in India is the crux of the story. It was after these nuclear tests in May 1998 that India came to be known as a nuclear state in the world.