How Scrapping His First Script Led Lokesh Kanagaraj To Team Up With Rajinikanth For Coolie!

Discover how Lokesh Kanagaraj scrapped his first Rajinikanth script and eventually created Coolie, marking their collaboration.

- August 18, 2025 | 4:33 PM IST

Coolie: Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Original Script Rejection Led to Rajinikanth Blockbuster (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Lokesh Kanagaraj and Rajinikanth’s collaboration is running high at the box office. The Coolie film is not only generating massive numbers but also giving War 2 an edge-to-edge competition. Amid this, a previous interview of Lokesh surfaced on the internet, in which it was disclosed that before proceeding with Coolie, Kanagaraj had rejected his first script with the veteran Superstar.

Lokesh Kanagaraj lost excitement with his first script with Rajinikanth

In a interview, the popular director disclosed that he worked on a script with the Superstar for almost two months, and the legendary star liked it a lot. However, after two months, they met again, but this time things changed drastically.

Rajinikanth asked Lokesh what had happened to him, as there had been a two-month hiatus, and then he revealed that he had lost excitement for that project. This further leads to him pitching Coolie script to the veteran, and he liked it a lot.

This eventually resulted in Coolie being the first project of Rajinikanth with Kanagaraj. It means that the Leo director had earlier different plans for the Superstar, but he changed the script and eventually brought Coolie in front of us.

#LokeshKanagaraj
– Initially, I narrated a story to #Rajini sir and worked on the script for 2 months. Rajini sir also liked it.
– After 2 months, I called Rajini sir and said, “Sir, let’s do another script.#Coolie pic.twitter.com/6bJLwW4uSf

— Movie Tamil (@MovieTamil4) August 17, 2025

Why audience criticise Lokesh Kanagaraj X Rajinikanth’s Coolie?

Rajinikanth’s presence holds an invaluable aura, which was the primary reason behind all the buzz of Coolie. Also, fans had set higher standards for Lokesh X Rajini projects, especially after his comparison with Leo and Vikram.

Despite all the anticipation, the audience believes Lokesh failed to capitalize on the hype and called it a weak screenplay. Even the poor execution of the story is another reason behind the film’s major criticism. The poor presentation of Nagarjuna in Coolie is also a significant negative aspect of Lokesh’s latest film.

#Coolie [2025]

A disappointing outing from Lokesh–Superstar duo. Ani’s music & Rajini’s trademark swag shine, with an AI-driven flashback standing out. Stylish Nagarjuna is wasted, Soubin gets fair screen time. Weak writing, screenplay & forced cameos make it a Below-Avg Watch! pic.twitter.com/NzmDBSins8

— Flick Hero (@Kiran_PsyFlick) August 14, 2025