Biriyani is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language action comedy thriller film directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by Studio Green.

[1][2][3][4] It stars Karthi and Hansika Motwani alongside an ensemble cast including Premji, Nassar, Ramki, Sampath Raj, Madhumitha, Jayaprakash, Prem, and Mandy Takhar (in her Tamil debut).

Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the score and soundtrack of Biriyani, which marks his 100th film, while Sakthi Saravanan and Praveen-Srikanth handled cinematography and editing, respectively.

Sugan and Parasuram attend a function for a branch opening of one of their offices, where they meet Varadharajan, who is the chief guest for the ceremony.

In the meantime, it is shown that a CBI officer named Riyaz Ahmed has been deputed to track Vardharajan's illegal activities.

[33] Further more, sources indicated that the newly married couple Sneha and Prasanna had been roped in for the film,[34] although Venkat Prabhu refused to comment about this.

[38] Later additions to the cast included Prem, television actor and mimic Badava Gopi, playing the role of a cameraman,[39] Uma Riyaz Khan,[40] Madhumitha,[41] Bangalore socialite Sangeetha Gopal,[42] and Sam Anderson.

[43] Reports suggested that Canadian film critic Review Raja had done a dance number choreographed by Shobhi during his visit in Chennai.

[47] The first day of shoot involved scenes between Karthi and Premji, which was carried out on a set inside a house near the Kodambakkam railway station in Chennai.

[51] Motion capture technology was used to film a fight sequence involving Karthi, Nitin Sathya, Murugadas and Panchu Subbu which was shot with a multiple camera setup at Puducherry.

[56] Although a 14-day schedule was planned in Hyderabad, the unit returned within three days to Chennai, after facing with opposition from the stunt union of Andhra Pradesh.

[67] Besides poet Vaali and the director's father Gangai Amaren, who regularly work in Prabhu's films, Niranjan Bharathi, who penned the song "Nee Naan" in the director's previous venture Mankatha, and Madhan Karky were brought on board to write the lyrics, the latter collaborating the first time with Yuvan Shankar Raja.

[73] It was later announced that, due to the leak, the planned audio launch was subsequently cancelled and that the album would be directly released to stores on 21 August 2013.

[76][77][78][79][80] Although costume designer Vasuki Baskar wrote on her social media account that the first look of the film would be released on 13 November, during the Diwali festival,[81] it was unveiled on 15 December 2012 at Yuvan Shankar Raja's concert in Malaysia.

The makers then planned to release the film on 11 October 2013 coinciding with Dusshera festival[84] But the date was changed to January 2014, and later to 20 December 2013.

[88] Behindwoods gave 3.25 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Venkat Prabhu's Biriyani while adhering to the director's recipe, has humor, suspense, music, action and glamour in delectable portions resulting in a delicious product".

[89] Rediff gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Though the film takes its own sweet time to get a move on, once it gathers momentum, there is no stopping till the end, where there is an exciting climax, as well as an anticlimax, in typical Venkat Prabhu style", calling it "a fun-filled thriller".

[90] Indiaglitz gave 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "Through the first half the ingredients make up a commercial pot boiler and the build up to the story is slow and steady.

The last 20 minutes serves the twist in the tale, and a round of applause to the director to have correlated the events of 2 hours in the final climax".

[91] The Hindu wrote, "Intelligent line, sensible humour, particularly at the most unexpected moments, Sakthi Saravanan's contribution with the lens, Silva's noteworthy action choreography and Karthi's energy are scoring points of this Venkat Prabhu offering.

The larger problem here is that this film doesn't have the crackle and pop of a rom-com, a thriller or even cleverly written comic lines".

[93] IANS gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Venkat Prabhu's Biriyani despite being fairly satisfying is not excellent because it gets too starchy due to unwanted ingredients.

While the use of situational comedy works to some extent but what we see in some scenes is not humorous but downright awful and the double entendres directed at women are uncalled for".

[95] The New Indian Express wrote, "Venkat Prabhu's Biriyani falls flat and struggles to make an impact with the audience with a nonsensical love story and even worse thriller plot.