Singam

Singam
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Hari
Written by	Hari
Produced by	K. E. Gnanavel Raja
Starring	Suriya Anushka Shetty Prakash Raj
Cinematography	Priyan
Edited by	V. T. Vijayan
Music by	Devi Sri Prasad
Production companies	Reliance BIG Pictures Studio Green
Distributed by	Sun Pictures
Release date	28 May 2010 (2010-05-28)
Running time	159 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹15 crore1
Box office	est. ₹90 crore2

Singam (transl. Lion) is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language action film written and directed by Hari. Produced by K. E. Gnanavel Raja's Studio Green and Reliance BIG Entertainment, and distributed by Sun Pictures, it is the first instalment in the Singam film series. The film stars Suriya in the lead role, alongside Anushka Shetty, Prakash Raj, and Vivek. It was Suriya's 25th film as the lead actor.

Singam was released on 28 May 2010 and grossed around ₹90 crore (equivalent to ₹202 crore or US$21 million in 2023) worldwide. It was remade in Kannada as Kempe Gowda, in Hindi as Singham, in Bengali as Shotru, and in Punjabi as Singham. The film was followed by two sequels titled Singam II (2013) and Si3 (2017).

Sub-Inspector Duraisingam "Singam", an honest police officer, lives in Nallur, a small village in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu, and is assisted by his bumbling colleague Erimalai. Singam belongs to Nallur with his father, Soundarapandi, having a respectable status in the village. His family business is provision stores, and Singam wants to join it, but he joined the police force due to Soundarapandi's wishes. Singam resolves most of the problems in his village with non-violence and mutual counselling. He uses force only when the situation demands it, thereby earning great respect and affection from the villagers.

Mahalingam, an industrialist in Chennai and a friend of Soundarapandi, arrives at the village with his daughters Kavya and Divya. Singam initially assumes Kavya is a prankster when she is about to prank her cousin by wearing a tiger costume. While roaming around the village, Singam accidentally slaps Kavya, but later apologises to her. Kavya gets moved by this and slowly falls in love with him. After some hilarious incidents, Kavya professes her love to Singam. Initially taken aback, Singam reciprocates Kavya's love.

Mayil Vaaganam, a Chennai-based thug infamous for extortion and kidnapping, who often earns money by blackmailing industrialists about their black money to the income tax. One day, Mayil threatens an old industrialist with payment of extortion money, otherwise trapping him in a fake rape case. The old man commits suicide and for that, Mayil is required to travel to Nallur to sign a conditional bail. Mayil instead sends one of his allies to do the formalities, enraging Singam. Singam demands that Mayil sign the bail in person. A humiliated Mayil reaches Nallur, but is unable to take any revenge on Singam, fearing the immense love and devotion of the entire village towards Singam. Using his political contacts, Mayil gets Singam transferred to Chennai to teach him a lesson. Unaware of Mayil's hand behind his transfer, Singam joins the Thiruvanmiyur police station. His co-worker, SI Ravi, hates Mayil for his crimes, but is unable to take any action because of Mayil's political powers. Singam's senior Rajendran is on Mayil's payroll and takes care in concealing and eliminating evidence of Mayil's crimes.

The police commissioner does not help Singam because there is a lack of evidence against Mayil. Rajendran warns Singam to stay away from Mayil's case. Unable to take on Mayil in his stronghold, Singam wants to return to his village, but is stopped by Kavya, who encourages him to fight against Mayil and end his crime network. Being mentally tortured by Mayil, Singam decides to quit the job but is motivated by Kavya and as a result, Singam arrests Mayil's brother, Vaikuntam, in a fake case of illegally smuggling alcohol. He thwarts Rajendran in full view of the public when Rajendran, bound by his duties to Mayil, tries to protect the henchmen. Mayil kidnaps Divya for ransom. Singam rescues her with unexpected help from Home Minister Ramanathan.

Singam successfully traces the origins of the kidnapping racket to Mayil and also gets promoted to ACP of the specially-formed Anti-Kidnapping Task Force. Mahalingam, who was hostile to Singam following an altercation with Soundarapandi back at Nallur, softens up and agrees to give him Kavya's hand in marriage. The entire police force, including the police commissioner and Rajendran, is now on Singam's side and helps him to fight Mayil. They manage to kill Mayil's henchmen in an encounter at a hospital and begin to target everyone and everything related to Mayil. In retribution, Mayil starts targeting everyone close to Singam, including Kavya, but is saved by Singam and Ravi, who is hacked to death by Mayil. To escape from getting arrested, Mayil kidnaps the daughter of the Karnataka Home Minister.

Mayil falsely tells Singam that he is going to Pondicherry with her, but he is going to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh to put the police off the track. However, Singam manages to pursue them till Gudur near Nellore, where he rescues her and kills Mayil in an encounter. Singam resigns from his job publicly in a felicitation function organised for him, where he heads back to Nallur with Kavya. Singam is stopped briefly by Ramanathan, who offers an undercover mission, to which he willingly agrees.

Singam, the 25th film for Suriya as lead actor, was announced in April 2009. It is his third collaboration with director Hari after Aaru (2005) and Vel (2007), as well as Suriya's second film as a police officer after Kaakha Kaakha (2003) and the second police film directed by Hari after Saamy (2003). Suriya revealed that he and Hari initially did not want to do another police film as they felt the previous two were "still fresh in the minds of the audience" but decided to proceed after Suriya liked the pitch provided by Hari. The actor sported a handlebar moustache for his role. The film was shot in locations including Valasaravakkam in Chennai and parts of Andhra Pradesh,³⁴⁵ while the song "En Idhayam" was shot at Qantab Beach in Muscat and Nizwa.⁶ Within Tamil Nadu, the film was also shot in Courtallam, Karaikudi, Tenkasi and Tirunelveli.⁷

The soundtrack was composed by Devi Sri Prasad, marking his third collaboration with Suriya after Maayavi (2005) and Aaru and with Hari for the second time after Aaru. The audio rights were bought by Sony Music South.⁸

Singam was released on 28 May 2010 in theatres worldwide.¹¹ It was distributed by Sun Pictures.⁸

Sify gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Singam is a predictable entertainer that follows the age old formula, which might appeal to viewers who finds comfort in mass masala entertainers."¹² Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff.com gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Singam is an unapologetic entertainer and has Suriya in every frame. Lovers of commercial potpourri will definitely get their money's worth."¹³ Bhama Devi Ravi of The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Even with a sleepy narration in the first 30 minutes or so, Singam is worth a watch."¹⁴

In Malaysia and the United Kingdom, Singam collected $1,471,508 and $12,956 respectively.¹⁵ According to The Times of India, it grossed around ₹90 crore (equivalent to ₹202 crore or US$21 million in 2023) worldwide and was the second highest-grossing Tamil film of the year behind Enthiran.²

At the 58th Filmfare Awards South, Baba Bhaskar won the Filmfare Award for Best Choreography – South for "Kadhal Vandhale", and Suriya was nominated for Best Actor – Tamil.¹⁶

Singam was remade in multiple different languages; in Hindi as Singham (2011), in Kannada as Kempe Gowda (2011),¹⁷ in Bengali as Shotru,¹⁸ and in Punjabi as Singham (2019).¹⁹ It was dubbed in Telugu under the title Yamudu, and was released on 2 July 2010.²⁰²¹

The film's success led to two sequels: Singam II (2013) and Si3 (2017), both also directed by Hari and starring Suriya in the title role.²²

Vivek, Santhanam and Soori parodied Suriya's character in the Malayalam film Oru Nunakkadha (2011),²³ Vellore Maavattam (2011),²⁴ and Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (2013), respectively.²⁵ The famous line in the film, "Ongi Adicha Ondra Tonne Weight da!" (My hit is of one and half tonnes in force!) was used in "The Punch Song", a song from the film, Aaha Kalyanam (2014), which compiles popular phrases from earlier Tamil films.²⁶ The character Durai Singam made a cameo in the climax of Karuppu (2026).²⁷