Lokesh Kanagaraj has been credited as the first director to bring the cinematic universe concept to Tamil audiences. LCU, the Lokesh Cinematic Universe that social media users coined it as, eventually struck a chord with the filmmaker who decided to use it for the films in that universe.

What started with Karthi's Kaithi (2019), eventually expanded to encompass the mammoth hit Vikram (2022), Vijay's Leo (2023) and is now continuing with Raghava Lawrence's Benz which is awaiting release.

Lokesh Kanagaraj has now revealed the exact moment he wanted to bring the Kaithi and Vikram universes together. Speaking to Galatta Plus ahead of the release of Rajinikanth's Coolie, the filmmaker revealed that it stemmed from a simple confusion of wanting to cast a character like Narain from Kaithi in Vikram.

"Kamal sir and I decided that were going to do a film. We locked on the idea, Master too was released and the COVID-19 wave too had ended. I didn't want to waste time scouting for office spaces and chose RKFI office for the first few months. Sir gave me an idea and I told him that I will develop the story in six months. In the process of it, I realised that there was one character which was exactly like Narain from Kaithi. I felt it would be great if someone like him was there for this film. When I was brainstorming the idea, I had the eureka moment of working on a crossover with Narain's character. None of my ADs understood it," he shared.

Lokesh then narrated the idea of bringing back all the characters from Kaithi onto Vikram. "I mentioned that this would also deal with the same emotions and messaging as 'Say no to drugs'. I wanted to club the films, but initially my ADs said no to the idea. They questioned me, 'How would it work?' I reaffirmed that it would work and told them we'll work on the story," he said.

Explaining how Kamal Haasan reacted when he gave the script of Vikram to him, he said, "I finished the bound and gave it to Kamal sir. I watched him and learnt about cinema. He's my idol. I gave the book and was anxiously waiting for his approval. He didn't have any objection and appreciated me for the idea. In case if he had, as an actor and producer for the film, Vikram would not have turned out the way it had."

Only Narain, George Maryan, and Maya S Krishnan have returned to their roles in a major way in several of the universe's films. In voice-only cameos, Karthi and Kamal Haasan reprised their parts as Dilli in Vikram and Vikram in Leo, respectively. Up next in the LCU slate, Lokesh Kanagaraj has Benz which he is producing and Kaithi 2 which is in pre-production. Lokesh has also previously hinted at the possibility of a Vikram sequel. Suriya disclosed in August 2023 that a spin-off based on his character, Rolex from Vikram, was in the works.