Jagan Mohini (1978)

In a year marked by spectacular flops (e.g. V.B. Rajendra Prasad’s gangster movie Ramakrishnulu with megastars NTR and A. Nageshwara Rao), the surprise Telugu hit was this mid-budget ghost film. A woman betrayed by a king reappears in his next life as a ghost (the cabaret dancer Jayamalini) intent on possessing him. On the advice of a priest, the king marries a pious woman who matches her devotional prowess against the ghost’s seductions and wins.