One of the posters for Coolie features Rajinikanth holding a badge containing the number 1421. There has been speculation about the significance of the number among the actor's fans and cinephiles in general. However, at the Coolie trailer launch event earlier today, director Lokesh Kanagaraj revealed that it is a tribute to his father, a bus conductor. Lokesh disclosed that Rajinikanth once asked him what the number means. "When I told him that it is my father's badge number and that he was a bus conductor, Rajinikanth sir asked me, 'Why didn't you tell me that your father was a conductor?'" Lokesh revealed that he did not tell Rajinikanth about his father to keep it a secret and knowing that the actor would ask him about it later. "I knew that it would be more memorable then," said the filmmaker.
For the uninitiated, Rajinikanth also served as a bus conductor for the then Bangalore Transport Service (now Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation) before becoming an actor. His bus driver colleague and friend P Raj Bahadur egged him on to turn his passion for acting into a profession. Rajinikanth would eventually join the Madras Film Institute in order to study acting, and filmmaker K Balachander later discovered him there and cast him in Apoorva Raagangal, his acting debut.
Coolie marks the 171st film in his career. Its release coincides with Rajinikanth's 50th year as an actor. The film also stars Sathyaraj, Soubin Shahir, Nagarjuna, Shruti Haasan, Nagarjuna, and Upendra, among others. It is slated for an August 14 release.
