In his 40-year-long career, Nagarjuna has rarely played negative roles. But in a surprising change, he will be seen as the villain named Simon in Rajinikanth’s upcoming gangster drama Coolie, directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj.
In an interview, Nagarjuna shared that Lokesh politely asked if he would be okay playing a negative role, saying, “If not, we’ll just have tea, and I’ll leave”.
But Nagarjuna was curious and asked for the narration. He enjoyed it so much that he called Lokesh seven more times for further narration sessions.
Nag also revealed a fun moment from the sets, where Lokesh would tell him to ‘walk like a tiger’ while performing.
He compared this with Kubera director Sekhar Kammula, who would often tell him to tone things down and ‘keep it normal’. Nagarjuna is exploring different shades with both films. Kuberaa, in which he plays a grey-shaded government officer, hits screens on June 20th.
చెన్నైలో కన్నప్ప స్పెషల్ షో చూసిన సూపర్ స్టార్ రజినీకాంత్!#Rajinikanth #MohanBabu #ManchuVishnu #Kannappa pic.twitter.com/RmL4RiVScO
— Filmy Focus (@FilmyFocus) June 17, 2025