Priya (1978 film)


Priya is a 1978 film, made in Tamil and Kannada, directed by S. P. Muthuraman, starring Sridevi in the titular role along with Rajinikanth, Aznah Hamid, and Ambarish in supporting roles. Priya is a beautiful girl whose boyfriend is Sumant Raja. The story is an adaptation from writer Sujatha's Ganesh - Vasanth novels. The film was successful at the box office.

Plot

Priya is a movie star who is exploited by her producer Janardhan / K. Ashwath. 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 this movie, which includes a side story of Ganesh falling in love with a Malay-Indian girl named Subathra. The original story written by Sujatha was based in London setting with the Scotland Yard playing a central role, but the film adaptation chose Singapore and Malaysia as the backdrop and the police force is left out.

Cast

The soundtrack features five songs composed by Ilaiyaraaja being his 50th film, with lyrics by Panju Arunachalam.
The soundtrack of this film is recorded using stereophonic technology for the first time in Tamil cinema. "Akarai Cheemai" song's Pallavi is based on the song "Kites" by Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. The song "Hey Paadal Ondru" is set in Kapi raga. "Darling Darling" song was inspired by Boney M.'s "Sunny ".
;Tamil version
;Kannada version

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.