Rajinikanth's Coolie OTT: No Lessons Learnt from Thug Life Blunder?

If you are a fan of South Indian cinema, then you must know the anticipation that the Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam film Thug Life held in the weeks leading up to its release on 5th June. Not only that, but the makers were so confident of their product that they decided to opt for an eight-week streaming release deal with Netflix.

Thug Life quickly faced setbacks, and Netflix ultimately prevailed, releasing the movie within the standard 4-week window, as it typically does for every South Indian film. Now, Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj might just be repeating the same mistake again. Their upcoming film Coolie has also opted for an eight-week streaming window with OTT partner Amazon Prime Video.

It's obvious that a lot more is riding on Coolie than on Thug Life. The film was reportedly made on a massive budget of Rs.400 crores, and hence the box-office expectations will also be high for the movie. Also, it's touted as the first Kollywood movie that will ever cross the Rs.1000 crore mark at the worldwide box office.

Sun Pictures is also doing everything possible to get good deals across various departments. There is no doubt in saying that Coolie will open big, and it will most likely hit the bullseye when it comes to the numbers. But, going with an eight-week streaming window with Prime Video when Jr. NTR and Hrithik Roshan's film War 2 is getting released on the same day, the Coolie makers are taking a huge bet on the movie.

Lokesh is one director who is known for his clarity on what he wants out of a movie, and in the one or two appearances he made after completing the shooting of Coolie, he sounded super confident of how the movie had come out. But Kollywood is on a really bad streak right now with back-to-back flops.

Only the small films with good stories and emotions had managed to work big time. Biggies like Retro, Kanguva, and Thug Life all tanked, and it remains to be seen what will happen to Coolie's fate from August 14.