Trailer of Rajinikanth, Lokesh Kanagaraj's magnum opus ‘Coolie' to be out on August 2
'I want to deliver on trailer, and then the film,' Kanagaraj said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter India. 'Anything more than that will be a giveaway.'
The Tamil film, which will also release in Telugu, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam, is bankrolled by media baron Kalanithi Maran's Sun Pictures, and reportedly cost Rs 3,500 million-Rs 4,000 million (Dh150 million to Dh172 million approximately).
Kanagaraj, who has delivered blockbusters such as Vikram, with Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil, and Master and Leo with Vijay, prefers to not let much out about the movie. Beginning with his debut Maangaram (2017), he hasn't had a flop so far in his career.
The stakes are high, and no one knows this better than Kanagaraj, a banker before he entered filmmaking. Controversy erupted when action scenes filmed with Nagarjuna were leaked online last year. Kanagaraj had then said that the leak had laid to waste over two months of hard work.
That's why, he said, the movie's unit decided to stick to shots of Coolie 's key stars in a preview that was unveiled 100 days before its scheduled August 14 theatrical release.
Coolie will release alongside the Hrithik Roshan, NT Rama Rao Junior action flick War 2 in India and around the world. While Kanagaraj isn't sure if Coolie will be the first Tamil film to break the Rs 1,000-crore mark at the box office, a constant refrain in film circles, he is resolute about one thing. 'What I can guarantee is the value of the Rs 150 or Rs 200 ticket that people pay to watch the film,' he was quoted as saying by The Holllywood Reporter India, adding that his remuneration for the movie was Rs 500 million.
One of the movie's talking points was a cameo by Bollywood star Aamir Khan. Rajinikanth and Khan reunite on screen for the first time in three decades since Aatank hi aatank. Khan let the cat out of the bag, revealing in a recent interview that his role would be in the latter half of the movie. Subsequently, Sun Pictures released a poster of Khan, noting that his role was named "Dahaa".
Kanagaraj also confirmed in the interview that his Bollywood debut will be with Khan some time next year. "It's a Hindi film but for a global audience. Aamir sir and I have spoken about it a lot, especially when he was on the sets of Coolie," he said. "I know fundamentally his films are different from mine but our collaboration will bring about a new genre."
Anirudh Ravichander, Rajnikanth's nephew who collaborated with the director for Master, Vikram and Leo, returns as Coolie 's music composer. Girish Gangadaran is its cinematographer and Philomin Raj its editor.
The movie's first single, Chikitu, dropped online a few weeks ago and quickly rose to become one of the most streamed songs and viewed on YouTube. Monica..., the film's second song, has garnered over 13 million views in three days on YouTube.
The movie will release in Hindi as Coolie: The Powerhouse, against its earlier title of Majadoor. The title Coolie has been used by many Hindi films — be it Amitabh Bachchan's 1983 cult classic or Govinda's comic caper Coolie no. 1 (1995), which was rebooted 25 years later with Varun Dhawan in the lead.
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