The film stars Shoba playing the title character along with Kamal Haasan, Roja Ramani and Mohan in other prominent roles.

The film was remade into Malayalam as Oomakkuyil and in Hindi as Aur Ek Prem Kahani both by Mahendra himself in 1983 and 1996, respectively.

As Kokila's father travels a lot and his wife is suffering from health problems, they decide to keep a paying guest.

She is informed by her mother that Vijay has vacated the room and makes several unsuccessful attempts to find his whereabouts.

Kokila was the directorial debut of Balu Mahendra,[1] who was one of the leading cinematographers in South Indian cinema at the time.

People from five different industries worked in the film; Shoba (Malayalam), Kamal Haasan and Balu Mahendra (Tamil), Roja Ramani (Telugu), Mohan (Kannada) and Salil Choudhry (Bengali).

Mohan was acting in a play named Sidhathe alongside G. V. Iyer and Girish Karnad and he was asked to send his photograph to Mahendra who was in search of new actors for his debut directorial venture.

[5] Balu Mahendra shot a few sequences at Hotel Paraag and a huge rock in Cubbon Park in Bangalore.

[7] The soundtrack album and background score for Kokila were composed by Salil Chowdhury with lyrics by Chi.

The song Sanje Thangaali Mai Sokalu is based on the Malayalam song Raappadi Paadunna which Salil Chowdhury had composed for the Malayalam film Vishukkani, and also Bengali version Aj Noy Gun Gun Gunjan sung by Lata Mangeshkar.

[1] Mahendra later remade the film in Malayalam as Oomakkuyil (1983) and in Hindi as Aur Ek Prem Kahani (1996).