Paayum Puli

<p>Bharani, a meek person, joins a school and trains to become a martial artist, to exact revenge against Balram, a smuggler responsible for the death of his sister Sumathi. Director and writer , cashing on the popularity of and his , designed the story of with being hired as the action choreographer. and it was inspired by the 1978 film . initially wanted to play the antagonist, but he declined the offer. Karate Mani, a stuntman was later cast in the role, but he walked out and the role finally went to . Filming took place primarily in a village near . The music was composed by and lyrics were written by . For the dubbed version , the lyrics were written by . The song “Aadi Maasam” was well received, and it was later remixed by in . was released on 14 January 1983, coinciding with . Thiraignani of said the real pouncing tigers of the film were the hero and the technicians. Balumani of praised Ilaiyaraaja’s music, Babu’s cinematography and Judo Ratnam’s stunt choreography but panned the story and dialogues and called it the weakest film from AVM Productions. was a commercial success, completed a 133-day run at theatres and grossed over (equivalent to 340 million or US$4.0 million in 2023). The makers wanted to release the film in , but got into trouble as the title had “Puli” (Tiger), perceived as alluding to the . It was decided to release the film in the country with the title ( ), but the film still did not release there.</p>