‘Coolie’ Ticket Fever: Rajinikanth Film Sees Hiked Rates and Sold-Out Shows Across South India
With instances of the ticket rates being jacked to ₹4,500, the frenzy around advance booking for ‘Coolie’ has intensified, especially across the South Indian cities.
With just a few days left for the release of Coolie, Lokesh Kanagaraj's first collaboration with Rajinikanth— the latest Tamil screen icon after Vijay and Kamal Haasan to be contoured by the popular filmmaker — audiences looking to book tickets in advance are navigating a frenzy. From sold-out first-day shows to jacked-up ticket rates (a report by India Today quotes instances of tickets being sold for as high as ₹4,500 in Chennai), the average South Indian has been bitten by the Coolie bug.
G Venkatesh Reddy of Mukunda 4K Dolby Theatre, a popular single screen in Bengaluru that has sold over 7,000 tickets for the film already, attributes this frenzy not to Rajinikanth, but to Lokesh Kanagaraj. “His idea of bringing in actors from all industries (Upendra, Nagarjuna Akkineni, and Soubin Shahir form part of the film’s cast), the popularity of LCU and his cinematic capabilities are unique,” Venkatesh tells The Hollywood Reporter India. The last time he witnessed such hype in the city was for yet another Kanagaraj film: Vijay’s Leo (2023). “With the pace at which things are progressing, I think Coolie might overtake Leo,” he says.
Bengaluru, which is already known for its notoriously unstable ticket rates, are selling first show tickets for as steep as ₹1,500 in fan-favourite single screens, even as multiplex tickets start from ₹400. But the higher figures also mean the city makes an unlikely hotspot for ticket scalping. Tickets aren’t sold in black in Bengaluru, Venkatesh explains. “The ticket price goes straight to the government tax, and the producer, distributor and the exhibitor everyone get to know the accounts. Whereas in Tamil Nadu, ₹200 tickets are being sold for ₹ 3000. They are saying Coolie will sell for ₹200 in Tamil Nadu. Show me where in Chennai you can get such a ticket?”
Trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai says black marketing of tickets has been consistent for big star films in Tamil Nadu for many years now. “That is part of the culture here and you can't change that overnight,” the analyst tells THR India. “For any Rajinikanth or Vijay film, this will be the case. In the social media age, when everyone's a reviewer, people want to watch a first show and give their two cents on a film. That is how the system works now,” he says. These first-day fan shows often include abundant fanfare and celebrations, which perhaps contribute to the heightened fare. With the film predicted to be screened in over 1,000 screens across Tamil Nadu, it is difficult to regulate ticket fares in the state, he notes.
This seems to be the case in Tamil Nadu, even if their earliest shows begin at 9 AM, in contrast to 6 AM shows in Bengaluru and 5 AM shows in Mumbai. In certain single screens in Chennai, tickets were sold out the moment they were listed online, and the only option to buy them was through theatre owners, that too for a combined offer that would mandatorily include the price of a combo food offer along with the movie ticket.
In a press briefing, Vishnu Kamal, the MD of Chennai’s Kamala Cinemas, warned viewers about buying tickets from non-authorised sellers. Quoting an issue during the release of Good Bad Ugly (2025), Vishnu brought notice to the illegal practice of black marketeers duping audience members with screenshots of the same ticket. In Kerala, Kanagaraj's Leo (starring Vijay) holds the record for the second-highest grossing Day 1 collections for any movie in the state. Leo held on to this record for over two years until Mohanlal’s L2:Empuraan, which broached the opening day numbers earlier this year.
In what is expected to eclipse that number, clips of fans running towards the box office window in Thrissur’s Raagam Theatre a week before release have added to the hype. After Karnataka, Kerala remains the other major centre in the South where the film will have 6 AM shows on the 14th of August.
After rounds of disagreements about the ticket hikes in Hyderabad, it was reported on the evening of August 12 that both Coolie and War 2 (the Jr NTR and Hrithik Roshan outing that will clash with the Rajinikanth film) will be released with regular ticket rates. In North India, however, the average ticket price for Coolie (Hindi) is around ₹250. According to trade sources, the makers have opted for regular pricing, and not even popular pricing. Which means that the tickets won't be exorbitant, and the rates will be lower for single screens and multiplexes in small towns. The film's Hindi version will face a tough battle with War 2, which will dominate with blockbuster pricing across IMAX, 4DX and ICE formats. The YRF-backed film will be released across 5000 screens across India, including a limited Hindi version release in South India.