Sanjay Sahu (Pawan Kalyan) is a post-graduate from Osmania University and is working as a gym instructor. He is in love with Indu (Kamalini Mukherjee) who wishes to marry him. So she makes him meet her father (Prakash Raj), who is a police officer and also happens to be his old acquaintance. Her father declines to approve their love and she is forced to marry according to her father's choice. Meanwhile, Bhagmathi a.k.a. Bhagi (Ileana D'Cruz) and her friend Jyothsna a.k.a. Jo (Parvathi Melton) are chased by hoodlums before being rescued by Sanjay. Furthermore, Jo and Bhagi are ragged in the college before being again rescued by Sanjay. Both begin to like Sanjay and even decide, to propose their love to him without the knowledge of the other. However, it is Jo who proposes first to Sanjay, who rejects her. Careful after seeing her friend's love rejected, Bhagi, with the help of Sreenu (Sunil), begins wooing Sanjay.

Meanwhile, Damodar Reddy (Mukesh Rishi), a powerful land-grabber who takes care of all the settlements while still in jail, is out on parole. He is in search of Sanjay for spoiling his land deals in the past and thrashing his son, who was one of the goons who chased Bhagi. He makes an attempt on life of Sanjay, but in vain. But, his friend Abhi (Ali) is taken as a hostage during the attack. Sanjay rescues Abhi, but is enraged when his friends stop him from assaulting the kidnapper by questioning his authority to take law into his hands and bringing them troubles. Sanjay then reveals his flashback, in which he hailed from a poor rural family. His brother dies of heart disease as a child. His father(Shishir Sharma) commits suicide as crops fail and his mother too passes away. While going to burial ground, he repeatedly slips and swoons at a stone pillar. He plucks it out, which enrages the henchmen of Damodar Reddy . When they attack him, Sahu beats them up, and disappears into a forest and joins the naxalites. During a combing operation, he joins hands with the father of Indu and Bhagi - a police officer - and his team to eliminate the team in an encounter. Sanjay is then rehabilitated as a college student in Hyderabad.

Bhagi confesses to her father about her intention to marry Sanjay, but her father rejects it by revealing to her about Sanjay being an ex-lover of her sister Indu, and an ex-naxal. Shocked, Bhagi agrees to get married as per her father's choice. Her father arranges engagement of Bhagi with Raghu Ram (Sivaji). Sanjay is disgusted that Bhagi has given her assent to the engagement and decides to break it. Meanwhile, Sanjay comes to know about the man who attempted on his life is none other than Damodar Reddy and Ragghu Ram is the elder son of Damodar Reddy. So Sanjay confronts him in jail and challenges him. Damodar Reddy gets out of jail, and forcibly arranges the marriage of Raghuram with Bhagi. Sanjay, meanwhile kidnaps the younger son of Damodar Reddy, and takes him head-on, defeats him and the film ends with Bhagi getting married to Sanjay.

Jalsa was released with 400 Prints in 800 theaters worldwide across 1000 Screens on 2 April 2008. The openings fetched really well As the film collected ?76.7 million (US$1.1 million) gross on its first day.

Filmfare Awards South

• Nominated—Best Film – Telugu - Allu Aravind
• Nominated—Best Director – Telugu - Trivikram Srinivas
• Nominated—Best Actor – Telugu - Pawan Kalyan
• Nominated—Best Actress – Telugu - Ileana D'Cruz
• Nominated—Best Supporting Actress – Telugu - Parvati Melton
• Nominated—Best Music Director – Telugu - Devi Sri Prasad
• Nominated—Best Lyricist – Telugu - Sirivennela Sitaramasastri - "Chalore Chalore"

The soundtrack of the film was launched on 29 February 2008. The audio rights were sold to Aditya Music for ? 9 million, the highest for a Telugu film of its released month.^[8] The music got very good reviews from websites^[9][10][11] and an excellent response from the public itself.^[12] The music has been topping the charts since its release.^[13][14] Devi Sri Prasad received the 2008 Santosham Best Music Director Award for his work on the film's music.