Rajinikanth starrer Thalaivar 171 has been titled Coolie, after a 1995 Tamil action film writtten and directed by P. Vasu, and starring actor Sarathkumar in the lead. Coolie's title teaser showcases Rajinikanth's character breaching port security, and enterting a godown of illegal stash, and beating up the goons while waxing poetic his own dialogue from Ranga (1982) . 

While 'Coolie' Rajinikanth is seen in a lean mean action avatar, music composer Anirudh has sampled Ilaiyaraaja's Vaa Vaa Pakkam Vaa song from the Rajinikanth starrer Thanga Magan (1983). Coolie is written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, and is scheduled to release in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada languages.

Coolie's technical crew includes Anbariv for action, Girish Gangadharan for cinematography, Philomin Raj for edits, Sathees Kumar for production design, and Lokesh Kanagaraj, Chandru Anbazhagan for dialogues. Chandru Anbazhagan has also been credited for additional screenplay on Coolie.