Sun Pictures’ Rajinikanth-Lokesh Kanagaraj mega pan-India action spectacle Coolie is all set for a thunderous global release in just three days, hitting cinemas worldwide on August 14, 2025. At the grand promotional event of the film, superstar Rajinikanth moved fans and the film’s team to silence as he shared a deeply personal and emotional memory from his younger days, one that felt straight out of a cinematic scene, yet was painfully real.

Rajinikanth recalls coolie days

The superstar recalled his story as a young man and said, “My father once strictly ordered me to work as a coolie, lifting sacks. I said, ‘Okay.’ I loaded three sacks onto a handcart and set off. What was supposed to be a quick 500-meter trip turned into a 1 to 1.5 km haul because an accident had caused a traffic diversion.”

Continuing the story, the superstar said, ”Balancing those sacks was no easy task. The road was full of lorries, buses, and cars, and every bump or pothole threatened my load. At one point, I lost balance, a sack tumbled down. People yelled at me from all sides. Bus passengers shouted, random bystanders questioned, ‘Why are you bringing this on the road? Who gave you this handcart?’ I suppose I looked too skinny to be doing the job.I picked up the sack again, got scolded, and somehow pushed on. When I finally reached, my uncle told me, ‘Three sacks came - load them into the tempo.’ I said, ‘Okay,’ and did it. Then I asked for the money.”