Priya is an Indian thriller film directed by S. P. Muthuraman, starring Rajinikanth in the title role along with Sridevi, Ambareesh, and Aznah Hamid. It was simultaneously made in Tamil and Kannada languages. The film shares the same name as a novel by Sujatha, but actually adapts from multiple works by the writer including the aforementioned novel. The Tamil version was released on 22 December 1978, and the Kannada version on 12 January 1979. It was dubbed and released in Telugu as Ajeyudu which released on 10 March 1979 and was also dubbed in Hindi as Love in Singapore in 1983. The soundtrack of this film is recorded using Stereophonic sound technology for the first time in Tamil cinema. It was Sridevi's first and only Kannada film as a lead actress.

Plot

Priya is a movie star who is exploited by her producer Janardhan. Janardhan has such a tight control over Priya's financial and personal affairs that he refuses to let her marry her boyfriend Bharat. Before she flies off to Singapore for a film shoot, Priya seeks the help of lawyer Ganesh to get rid of Janardhan. How Ganesh helps Priya overcome her problems accounts for the rest of the film, which includes a side story of Ganesh falling in love with a Malay-Indian girl named Subadhra.

Cast

Production

Priya was adapted from the novel of the same name by Sujatha. The film's screenplay and dialogues were written by Panchu Arunachalam. The film was produced by his brother Subbu. Rajinikanth portrayed detective Ganesh created by Sujatha in his novels for which he received inr 110000 for acting in the film while Ambareesh played the role based on Ganesh's partner Vasanth. The film was made as a bilingual both in Tamil and Kannada. Since the novel was set in Singapore, Muthuraman planned to shoot the film in there, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong and was careful of shooting it within the budget and after finalising the script, Muthuraman along with Subbu and Babu went on a recce to these places and finalise the locations and fixed all the necessary places to shoot. The filming wrapped within a month.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Ilaiyaraaja. It was recorded using Stereophonic sound technology for the first time in Tamil cinema using eight tracks. Ilaiyaraaja revealed he wanted to use this technology in Annakili (1976); however since he was a debutant, sound engineers did not encourage him that time. When Ilaiyaraaja came to know that K. J. Yesudas had equipments for stereophonic technology, he acquired them. The pallavi of the song "Akarai Cheemai Azhaginile" is based on the song "Kites" by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. The song "Hey Paadal Ondru" is set in the Carnatic raga known as Kapi.

Reception

Kousikan of Kalki found Priya to be entirely different from Sujatha's novel but praised the locations and cinematography. Another Tamil weekly wrote, "if this is what Panju wanted to do to Sujatha's novel he needn't have opted it for it at all". Responding to the criticism, Arunachalam said the original novel had dialogues between two characters over 40 pages and audience would not have patience if it was faithfully presented onscreen, so he made changes keeping the "very ordinary filmgoer in mind". Nevertheless, as Rediff.com noted in 2009, "the main characters were completely unrecognisable", prompting Sujatha to "complain vociferously about his characters being mauled".

Allegations

The footage of the famous car chase sequence from the Steve McQueen film Bullitt was edited and spliced into the climax scene of this film; however, the allegations that ensued was that it was done so without permission.