The new posters of Rajinikanth’s highly anticipated film Coolie have stirred a plagiarism debate on social media, with many users pointing out striking similarities between its visuals and those of several Hollywood films. Comparisons have been drawn to posters from Dakota Johnson’s Madame Web, Glass, and Rebel Moon. Some users even noted a resemblance between one of Coolie’s posters and Vijay’s 2022 film Beast.
An X (formerly Twitter) user shared a collage comparing Coolie’s posters with those of other films. The first photo shows a Coolie poster that appears to resemble Beast, in which both stars are peering through a cloth fabric. Similarly, another poster features different characters of Coolie shown through fragmented glass pieces, closely resembling the design of the Glass poster featuring James McAvoy. Yet another poster shows Rajinikanth’s character wrapped in a long red cloth, which many felt mirrored the aesthetic of Rebel Moon.
So basically, 3 out of the 4 posters recently released by the Coolie team are copied from somewhere else. Can’t even believe someone like GP copied even from a fan-made poster of Beast 🤐
GP is receiving a hefty sum from Makers for poster designing & this is what he’s doing😷 pic.twitter.com/yOjlcM7v8n
— Akshay (@iAkshayRPillai) August 2, 2025
The poster of #Coolie is copied from 2 movies (#MadmeWeb 2024 and #Glass 2019) Now there are chances of Coolie being postponed…. pic.twitter.com/9fk05hTGfO
— Lodhi Hotshot (@LodhiHotshot) July 28, 2025
Well Well Well, …. Typical Copycat 🤦🏻
Coolie(2025) Rebel Moon(2024) pic.twitter.com/9WFpbfpLDD
— Summer (@the_summer0) August 2, 2025
The comment read, “So basically, 3 out of the 4 posters recently released by the Coolie team are copied from somewhere else. Can’t even believe someone like GP copied even from a fan-made poster of Beast. GP is receiving a hefty sum from makers for poster designing, and this is what he is doing.” Another user wrote, “Song copied, first poster copied and now this one also, but some cinephiles will still get o***** in the name of Coolie. Copy + Paste, zero originality.” Another user called the makers “Typical copycat.”
This comes after music composer Ilaiyaraaja sent a copyright notice to Coolie makersin May last year for using his tune Disco Disco from Thanga Magan without proper authorisation, demanding either official approval or removal.
The Coolie poster controversy follows the film’s recent audio launch. During the event, Rajinikanth joked about himself and shared how he asked choreographer Sandy to go easy on him with the dance steps. He said, “He promised me that we’d kill it in the first song. I told him, ‘I am a 1950s model and have run lakhs of kilometers. My parts were used and changed. So, don’t pressure me and handle me with care.’”
Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, Coolie features Rajinikanth as Deva. The film also stars Nagarjuna, Sathyaraj, Upendra, Shruti Haasan, and Soubin Shahir in key roles. It is bankrolled by Kalanithi Maran under the banner of Sun Pictures. One of the key highlights of the film is a cameo performance by Bollywood star Aamir Khan.
