Billa (1980 film)

Billa
The film's title card
Directed by	R. Krishnamurthy
Produced by	K.Balaji
Starring	Rajinikanth K. Balaji Sripriya Reena Roy Major Sundarrajan R.S. Manohar Thengai Srinivasan Manorama S.A. Asokan
Music by	M.S. Viswanathan
Release date(s)	January 26, 1980 (1980-01-26)
Running time	175 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil

Billa (Tamil: பில்லா) is a 1980 Tamil film produced by K. Balaji and directed by R.Krishnamurthy. The film stars Rajinikanth, K. Balaji, Thengai Srinivasan, Manorama, Sripriya, Reena Roy and Major Sundarrajan. It is extensively based on the Hindi film Don (1978), with changes made in the script to suit the Tamil audience.

Plot

Billa is the story of one of the most powerful men in the business of crime, who in spite of being one of the most wanted on the list of Interpol, remains elusive to the police. Along with the police, Billa (Rajinikanth) makes a few other enemies through his merciless approach to running his organization, especially when he kills one of his own men, Rajesh, when Rajesh decides to leave the business. This introduces Billa to two new enemies, Kamini (Helen), Rajesh’s fiancee, and Priya, (Sripriya) Rajesh’s sister. When Kamini seduces Billa and attempts to have the police arrest him, her plan backfires as Billa outsmarts her and the police in his escape, and in the process Kamini loses her life.

A shattered, revenge-seeking Priya gets her hair cut short, trains in judo and karate, then enters Billa’s gang after deceiving them into thinking that she too is on the wrong side of the law. Billa is impressed with her fighting skills and allows her to work for him, without realizing her true intentions. Meanwhile, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts at nabbing Billa, the police finally succeed, but Billa dies during the pursuit, botching DSP Alexander’s (K.Balaji) plan to reach the source of all crime—the man Billa reported to—through capturing Billa alive. DSP buries Billa’s body, ensuring that people believe that he may still be alive. As luck would have it, DSP remembers his chance encounter with Rajappa (Rajinikanth), a simpleton trying to survive in the hustle and bustle of Chennai in order to support two small foster children, who is an exact lookalike of Billa. DSP hatches a plan to transform Raju into Billa and place him back into the crime nexus, but this time as a police informer.

Rajinikanth portrays the dreaded underworld don Billa

Around the time Raju "returns" to Billa's gang as Billa under the guise of amnesia. JJ (Thengai Srinivasan), just released from jail, begins his mission of revenge against DSP (for his wife's death) and his search for his children who had been saved and taken care of by Raju. Raju manages to replace the red diary with a blank one, and tells his gang that he is going to take revenge on the DSP, but is actually going there to give him the red diary. Priya goes after him, but Raju survives the attack and he tries to explain to her that he is not Billa, but Raju. She refuses to believe him at first but DSP intervenes and tells her that the man she is trying to kill is indeed Raju.

Meanwhile, as Raju learns more and more about Billa through his discovery of his diary and Priya’s help, he announces to his colleagues that his memory is back. Celebrations ensue, as Billa announces his return to the world, but things take a drastic turn when the police raid the celebrations, acting upon Raju's information, but Raju’s only witness to his true identity, DSP Alexander, dies in the crossfire.

Tangled in a web of confusion where the police refuse to believe that he is Raju, whereas his underworld gang realizes that he is indeed not Billa, Raju becomes not only hated by the police, but also by Billa’s right-hand man and the rest of his gang. To add to Raju’s woes, Billa’s diary which he had handed over to DSP — his last hope of proving his innocence — is stolen by JJ in an attempt to track down his lost children, without realizing that Raju is the one man who can reunite them. Raju escapes the clutches of the police and the underworld with Priya’s help and returns to his old self though he struggles to prove his identity and innocence. He eventually finds out that the Interpol Officer Gokulnath is Jagdish, the real underworld crime boss and after a long fight against Jagdish's men, Priya ends up getting the diary and one of the gangster's snatch it and burn it. The ending reveals that the diary which was burnt was, in fact, the fake diary and Raju had the real one in order to trick Jagdish, he gives the proof to the police and all charges are put against him, Jagdish is arrested and Raju returns to his old life.

Cast

Actor	Role
Rajinikanth	Billa and Raju
K. Balaji	DSP Alexander
Sripriya	Priya
Thengai Srinivasan	JJ
R.S. Manohar	Manoharan
Major Sundarrajan	Jagdesh
Manorama	Rajappa's old friend
Reena Roy	Cameo appearance
Helen	Kamini

Soundtrack

Music is composed by M.S. Viswanathan, with lyrics by Kannadasan.

No.	Song	Singers	Duration
1	"My Name Is Billa"	S.P. Balasubramaniam	04:26
2	"Iravum Pagalum"	Malaysia Vasudevan, Vani Jayaram	04:39
3	"Veththalaya Pottendi"	Malaysia Vasudevan	04:48
4	"Nattukulla Enakkoru"	S.P. Balasubramaniam	04:38
5	"Ninnaithale Inikkum Sugame"	L. R. Eswari	04:23

Billa and remakes

Don (Hindi)	Yugandhar (Telugu)	Billa (Tamil)	Shobharaj (Malayalam)
Amitabh Bachchan	N.T. Rama Rao	Rajinikanth	Mohanlal
Zeenat Aman	Jayasudha	Sripriya	Madhavi
Pran	Kaikala Satyanarayana	Thengai Srinivasan	T.G. Ravi

Release

Reception

Billa was very well received during its theatrical run, and has become a cult classic. MSN labelled the film as an "astounding success", stating that it established Rajinikanth as a leading star in Tamil cinema.

Box Office

Billa ran in theatres for 25 weeks in theatres, becoming the actor's biggest commercial success of that time.

Billa series

The success of Billa let to it being remade again in Tamil in 2007 under the same title by Vishnuvardhan, with Ajith Kumar portraying Billa. This remake was also inspired by the 2006 Hindi film Don (a remake of the 1978 namesake). Billa 2007 had the popular tracks My Name is Billa and Veththalaya Pottendi remixed, while retaining the original lyrics by Kannadasan. After it's commercial success, Vishnuvardhan decided to launch a sequel - Billa 2 with Ajith Kumar reprising his role. But due to date issues, Vishnuvardhan walked out of the project, leaving it to Chakri Toleti. The film is due for release in 2012.

External Links

• Billa (1980) at the Internet Movie Database