The Tamil cine audience is witness to the hate campaign Superstar Rajinikanth faced a few years ago, where the septuagenarian was constantly hounded with voices to "retire". Kannada actress Rachita Ram, who has played leading lady to Sandalwood A-listers like Upendra, Puneeth Rajkumar, Shivarajkumar, among others was in a similar situation, after she got stuck playing repetitive roles. 

A chance meeting with director Lokesh Kanagaraj at an awards ceremony lead Rachita Ram to express to the filmmaker that she wanted a script for a Kannada movie with a strong female protagonist. Rachita Ram told The Hindu recently that, the character of Agent Tina (played by actress Vasanthi) from the Tamil movie Vikram (2022), is what lead to her request.  

Instead Rachita Ram landed with the role of 'Kalyani' in Coolie, a character that is an undercover cop gone rogue. "I was desperate to do a role with villainous shades. In Kannada, filmmakers were hesitant to think beyond the traditional heroine role. They would always tell me, ‘How can a girl with a cute and chubby face petrify people?’ Thankfully, Lokesh Kanagaraj believed in seeing me differently on screen.", Rachita told The Hindu. 

She also revealed that the idea to underplay her character was a deliberate move by Lokesh Kanagaraj, who wanted to elicit a reaction from the audience post Coolie's release. On Rajinikanth's reaction to her performance, Rachita Ram revealed in her interview with The Hindu, 

“It’s been a year since I got that phone call from Rajini sir. I had returned from a shooting schedule in Bangkok when he called to say I had done an excellent job. He said it was great to see a Kannadada hudgi (Kannada girl)perform so well. I told him his words were bigger than Oscars for me. For one year, it was so tough not to tell the world about this.”

 

A Sun Pictures production, Coolie released in theaters worlwide on August 14, 2025. The movie is currently on day 6 of its theatrical run; In the first 4 days of release, Coolie went on to become the highest grossing Tamil movie with its global opening weekend collections of Rs. 404 Cr+, and made a record breaking domestic nett of Rs. 203.86 Cr. Coolie's domestic nett in the first 5 days is Rs. 213.22 Cr.