Salangai oli is a dubbed version of sagara sangamam. It won 2 national awards for the best director (k.viswanath) and best music director (illayaraja).
In Karnataka state only this movie ran more than 100 days in many theatres. This movie ran 511 days in Bangalore Pallavi theatre, 365 days in Mysore Kayathri theatre, 217 days in Bangalore Natraj theatre and 210 days in Mangalore Roopavani theatre.
Kamal Haasan is classically trained in Bharathanatyam but the film required him to perform other forms of classical dances as well. So Kamal, amidst his busy schedule, took a few weeks to train himself in Kathak and Kathakali. Interestingly he performed Kathak again 28 years later in Vishwaroopam.
After the film's success there were talks of remaking it in Hindi but as they couldn't find an actor with star power who could perform classical dance the plan was dropped in the initial stages. Later Director Vishwanath said "I'm not exaggerating when I say that only Kamal can do this film".
This is the first Movie ran more than 100 days in 4 southern states of India (Andhra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala)