Nagarjuna, who will be seen as the antagonist in director Lokesh Kanakaraj’s upcoming action extravaganza ‘Coolie’, has now disclosed that Lokesh had made the film well within its budget and in fact, had completed the film with Rs five crore to spare.Participating in a pre-release event of Coolie, Nagarjuna lauded director Lokesh Kanakaraj’s clarity of thought and speed of working.
He said, “I don’t want to say the figure but when we were in Bangkok for the last schedule, Lokesh said to me,’ Sir, they gave me so much budget. We still have Rs Five crore left. We have finished the film.’ That is fantastic. Such a big film and he has finished it.”
Nagarjuna also disclosed that Lokesh worked with a six-camera set up. He said, “He (Lokesh) works with a six-camera set up. Most of the takes were one takes. When I saw the cut version of the film, I thought, “Have I acted so well?” Even though I was given a negative role in the movie, the experience of doing this role was positive. Sathyaraj, Shruti Haasan, Soubin, Upendra all acted wonderfully,” he said.
For the unaware, Coolie, featuring Superstar Rajinikanth in the lead, has already triggered huge expectations. Rumours doing the rounds in the industry suggest that director Lokesh Kanakaraj’s much awaited action entertainer may well reach audiences in over a 100 countries around the world when the film hits screens on August 14 this year.
Apart from Rajinikanth, the film also stars stalwarts from the Indian film industry like Nagarjuna, Sathyaraj, Aamir Khan, Upendra, Soubin Shahir and Shruti Haasan.
Anirudh has composed the music for the film, marking his fourth consecutive film with director Lokesh Kanagaraj. Cinematography for the film is by Girish Gangadharan and editing is by Philomin Raj.
The film is keenly awaited as it will feature actors Sathyaraj and Rajinikanth together after almost 38 years. The two were last seen together in the superhit Tamil film ‘Mr Bharath’, which was released in 1986 and in which Sathyaraj played Rajinikanth’s father. Interestingly, Sathyaraj had turned down offers to act in some of Rajinikanth’s earlier films like ‘Enthiran’ and ‘Sivaji’