Coolie A Commercial Film, Not A Part Of Any Universe: Lokesh Kanagaraj

Lokesh Kanagaraj has gradually established himself as one of the top directors of Tamil cinema. His career trajectory has been going steadily upwards with films like Master, Kaithi, Vikram and Leo. The last three being part of the shared Lokesh Cinematic Universe. Although the films were critically acclaimed as well as financially big successes, his movies have been criticised by some for the portrayal of drugs and substance abuse. Lokesh Kanagaraj has now said that he plans to rectify that mistake with his upcoming film with Rajinikanth titled Coolie.

Coolie, which will be the filmmaker’s first work with the stalwart, does not involve drugs and instead focuses on gold smuggling, with Rajinikanth playing a character with grey shades. The first look of Rajinikanth from the film was unveiled a while back, that showed the actor bound to a handcuff made of gold. There was also a lot of speculation regarding whether Coolie will be part of the LCU, but Lokesh has now said in an interview that it will be a standalone film and not part of any universe. He has said that Coolie will be a ‘pakka’ commercial film with mass elements typical of a Rajinikanth film.

Another noteworthy fact about Coolie is that the film reunites Rajinikanth with co-actor Sathyaraj after 38 long years. They were last seen together in 1984’s Mr Bharath. Sathyaraj is believed to be playing the main antagonist in the film. Shruti Haasan also stars in the film and so does Malayalam actress Reba Monica John, who had previously played a part in Vijay’s Bigil.

After a brief period of a career setback, Rajinikanth had a thunderous comeback with last year’s smash hit Jailer. Before Coolie, he will also appear in TJ Gnavel’s Vettaiyan, which also stars the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Fahad Faasil. It is being speculated that Vettaiyan may release this year on October 10 but there has been no official confirmation about the same.