Actor Indrajith Sukumaran revealed earlier today that the teaser for his upcoming film Dheeram will release theatrically during the screening of Rajinikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj's Coolie this Thursday. The idea of leveraging the audience of a highly anticipated film to promote another is not new. Earlier this year, the trailer for Mammootty's film Bazooka was screened in Kerala theaters ahead of Mohanlal's L2: Empuraan shows. Dheeram capitalises on a growing trend in Malayalam cinema of using strategic theatrical promotions to reach a large and captive audience. It also aims at tapping into the massive fan base of a superstar such as Rajinikanth by cross-promoting between two different industries.

A thriller starring Indrajith as a police officer, Dheeram marks the directorial debut of Jithin T Suresh. It has a screenplay by Deepu S Nair and Sandeep Sadanandan, who are known for their work on the Dhyan Sreenivasan starrer Ore Mukham as well as Siju Wilson and Balu Varghese’s Pushpaka Vimanam. The film also stars Pani fame Sagar Surya, Divya Pillai, Aju Varghese, Vijayaraghavan, Roshan Basheer, Nishanth Sagar, and Reba Monica John. Interestingly, Reba also has a role in Coolie.

Speaking of which, Coolie brings Rajinikanth and director Lokesh Kanagaraj together for the first time. The film, which is releasing theatrically on August 14, also features actors Soubin Shahir, Upendra, Nagarjuna, Sathyaraj, and Shruti Haasan, among others.