It is a known fact the prior to Coolie, filmmaker Lokesh Kanagaraj had been wanting to work with Rajinikanth on a fantasy film, but the collaboration never happened for atleast 3-4 years. In this timeline, Lokesh Kanagaraj went from two full length feature films, to five. 

Coolie marks the maiden collaboration between the filmmaker and Superstar Rajinikanth. At the recently telecast Coolie Unleashed event—that marked the audio and trailer launch of Coolie—music composer Anirudh Ravichander revealed that he was the one who reconnected Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj out of desperately wanting the two to work on a film. 

"Lokesh Kanagaraj and I have been working continously on a lot of films in the last 5-6 years. Whenever I used to see Loki's footage, I've always thought to myself 'If he did a movie with Thalaivar, how nice would it be'. 

 

One day Lokesh and I were sitting at my home, where a big painting of Thalaivar adorns my wall. The painting was in the background, Lokesh was in front of me—that day I asked him 'when only are you going to do a film with Rajinikanth?'

He said 'I've myself been trying for three years, but nothing is getting set'. Then I asked him if he had a story, and he told a superb one. We were thinking if Thalaivar did this, it would be out of this world. Then I simply texted (Rajinikanth) 'Thalaivam Loki has one idea for you'. Rajini replied 'bring him tomorrow morning'. 

What I thought was if we went there obviously first Lokesh would narrate his idea, then Rajinikanth would give his inputs. But Rajini listened to the first 20 minutes of the story and he liked it. I am genuinely saying that one of the happiest person in the world over this (Rajinikanth-Lokesh Kanagaraj) combination coming to fruition is this Anirudh." - Coolie music composer Anirudh Ravichander during his Coolie Unleashed event speech. 

Coolie writer, director Lokesh Kanagaraj has since shared the image of him with Anirudh sitting in front of the Rajinikanth painting from this story. Coolie is the filmmaker's fourth time teaming up with Anirudh Ravichander after Leo (2023), Vikram (2022), and Master (2021).

Coolie is Anirudh's fifth time composing for Rajinikanth after Vettaiyan (2024), Jailer (2023), Darbar (2020), and Petta (2019). Of these, Darbar and Jailer are produced by the same banner as Coolie, making it Anirudh's third time with the Rajinikanth—Sun Pictures combination. Coolie releases in theaters worldwide on August 14, 2025 in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada languages.