Confirming that his role of Simon is that of an antagonist, Nagarjuna said that it was liberating to play the negative shades.
Published Jun 18, 2025 | 12:11 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 18, 2025 | 12:11 PM
Actor Nagarjuna, who is now busy promoting his upcoming film Kuberaa with Shekar Kammula, has recently revealed about his role in Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, confirming that his role of Simon is that of an antagonist, said that it was liberating to play the negative shades.
Nagarjuna added, “I don’t know what made Lokesh come to me, but the first question he asked me was, ‘Do you mind playing an antagonist?’ He told me that if that wasn’t on the cards at all, then we would just talk, have a cup of tea and he would take off. I told him honestly that I was not against it, but had to first listen to the script. ”
“I liked it so much that I made him come back six to seven times to figure 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 has a cup of coffee has to be decent. But in Coolie, all of that flew out of the window.”
Further elaborating on the liberating experience, he added, “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 if people really acted this way, and Lokesh said, ‘Yes sir, people are very evil!'”
The action entertainer is set to hit the big screens on 14 August. It is being produced by Sun Pictures and stars Nagarjuna, Upendra, Shruti Haasan, Soubin Shahir, Sathyaraj, Reba Monica John, Aamir Khan and Pooja Hegde alongside Rajinikanth.
Touted as a gangster action film, Coolie will feature action sequences choreographed by the renowned Anbariv duo. The film is a standalone project and not part of the Lokesh Cinematic Universe, which includes Kaithi (2019), Vikram (2022), and Leo (2023).
Filming began in 2024 July, with Girish Gangadharan as the director of photography, and Philomin Raj handling the editing.
Lokesh Kanagaraj, alongside Chandhru Anbazhagan, has written the dialogues and additional screenplay for the film. The film will be released in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada.
