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Fans are eagerly awaiting Lokesh Kanagaraj’s upcoming film Coolie, which boasts an ensemble cast including Rajinikanth and Nagarjuna. Adding to the excitement, in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Nagarjuna confirmed that he will be playing the villain in the film and described the experience as “liberating.” (Also Read: Nagarjuna equates Indian mass heroes to superheroes like Superman, Iron Man: ‘A guy raises his fist, 20 people fall’)
Nagarjuna on how Lokesh Kanagaraj approached him for Coolie
Nagarjuna shared how filmmaker Lokesh approached him with the idea of playing an antagonist. Recalling their first meeting, he revealed that Lokesh began the conversation by directly asking whether he would be open to playing a negative role. Lokesh even added that if Nagarjuna wasn’t comfortable with the idea, they could simply have a cup of tea and part ways. However, Nagarjuna said he wasn’t opposed to the idea but insisted on hearing the script before making a decision.
He recalled his reaction after reading the script, saying, “I liked it so much that I made him come back six to seven times to work out my role! But now, if anyone asked me how my role in Coolie was, I’d answer it with one word: liberating. There was no pressure in how I acted… unlike, say, the character of Deepak that I play in Kuberaa. Deepak has to be a certain way all the time — even the manner in which he drinks a cup of coffee has to be decent. But in Coolie, all of that went out of the window.”
Nagarjuna calls playing villain in Coolie a liberating experience
Explaining why it was such a freeing experience, he added, “I could ask someone to shut up and get out of my face… which I could never do earlier! That said, everyone said I made for a very charming villain; Lokesh has presented me that way. I had such a liberating experience. I asked him a couple of times if he was sure he wanted me to behave a certain way and whether people really acted like that, and Lokesh would say, ‘Yes sir, people are very evil!’”
About Coolie
Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj and produced by Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Pictures, Coolie is an action thriller that features Rajinikanth and Nagarjuna alongside Upendra, Soubin Shahir, Sathyaraj, Shruti Haasan, Junior MGR, Reba Monica John, Monisha Blessy, and Kaali Venkat. It marks Rajinikanth’s 171st film as a lead actor and is set to release in cinemas on 14 August. The film will clash at the box office with War 2, starring Jr NTR and Hrithik Roshan, directed by Ayan Mukerji.
