Actor-director Upendra stars with Rajinikanth in filmmaker Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie, which marks his comeback to Tamil cinema after a long time. It is his first big Tamil film after A Rajasekhar's Satyam (2008), where he stars alongside Vishal and Nayanthara. Beyond his work as an actor, Upendra is well known for his directorials, some of which have fans from across the country. Take actor-director Anurag Kashyap, for example. After the release of his Malayalam film Rifle Club, Anurag said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India that Upendra's A is the first South Indian film he saw "consciously without subtitles". The filmmaker revealed, "Ram Gopal Varma suggested to watch A (1998) and Om (1995). Because of which, I also went all the way to Mangaluru to spend some time on the sets of Upendra (1999)."

The filmmaker shared that Ram Gopal Varma, on whom A made quite an impact, screened both films for him. He added that both worked as window for him to explore more films from South India, notably Bala's Sethu, starring Vikram, and Selvaraghavan's Kaadhal Kondein with Dhanush. Remarkably, or not so remarkably for a filmmaker known for his massive collection of films, Anurag watched all the above films in their original language and understood them. "I felt it," he said during the interview.

Anurag Kashyap recently moved out of Mumbai to Bengaluru after expressing his dissatisfaction with Hindi cinema, especially calling out the emphasis on stars over storytelling in that industry.

Beyond Coolie, which is slated to hit theatres this Thursday, Upendra has multiple projects in the pipeline, including 45, the Arjun Janya directorial that also stars Shivarajkumar and Raj B Shetty. Director Anurag, on the other hand, has Nishaanchi and Bandar set to hit theatres in the near future.