A universe of Indian cinema where completely the new director directed only five films, and he created the biggest and most successful universe of Indian cinema, i.e. LCU. Indian cinema has seen many legendary directors, many of whom took years to achieve their position, while many have not achieved it yet. But today, we are going to talk about a director who, in just a few years, has raised the standards of not only Tamil cinema but the entire Indian cinema to a great height. And the name is Lokesh Kanagaraj.
If we talk about a universe like LCU, then on one side there is a prisoner released from jail who after eating 5 kg biryani washes 100-200 goons like a washing powder and the other is Vikram, a former commander of an elite black-ops team, sets out to bring down Sandhanam, the leader of the Vetti Vagaiyara drug syndicate. The third is a man with two characters. He is a family man today and runs a cafe, but he was once such a big gangster that even the other gangsters would tear their pants in front of him.
Table of Contents
Kaithi (2019) – The Beginning of the LCU
| Directed by | Lokesh Kanagaraj |
|---|---|
| Written by | Lokesh Kanagaraj Pon Parthiban |
| Produced by | S. R. Prakashbabu S. R. Prabhu Thiruppur Vivek |
| Starring | Karthi Narain Arjun Das |
| Budget | ₹25 crore |
| Box office | ₹105 crore |
The first instalment of this LCU universe came in 2019 with Kaithi with Suriya’s Brother Karthi. This is the story of one night in which some policemen catch a truck that has a lot of drugs. The mark of the Scorpion is drawn on everyone, and you must have understood whose mark the Scorpion is. Yes, it is Rolex’s property and that too 900 kg of drugs.
And here happens the entry of Dilli, the first hero of LCU who destroyed the whole gang in one night. When the supervillain Rolex’s man, mixes something into the wine of all the policemen at Anbu’s party and kills them all. All of them get drunk. Then our Delli first eats 5 Kg biryani and then beats up Rolex’s goons. It means everything goes up in smoke.
In this movie, especially the biryani scene and the machine gun scene, there are lots of whistles, and later, both these scenes become iconic; on top of that, the movie’s BGM, cinematography, and screenplay were outstanding.
Vikram (2022) – Expanding the Universe
| Directed by | Lokesh Kanagaraj |
|---|---|
| Written by | Lokesh Kanagaraj Ratna Kumar |
| Produced by | Kamal Haasan R. Mahendran |
| Starring | Kamal Haasan Vijay Sethupathi Fahadh Faasil |
| Music by | Anirudh Ravichander |
| Budget | ₹120 crore |
| Box office | ₹500 crore |
After this, In LCU, there is an entry, Vikram, who is the chief of the Special Back Squad in India and has accomplished more than 100 missions. They have already given their due, but instead of honouring them, the government is busy destroying them and gets all the members of this special squad killed along with their families and apart from their agent Vikram, three more agents survive and save themselves. Sandhanam, i.e. Sethupathi, who again deals in drugs. Masked man, i.e. Vikram, as his cover, and in the end, Amar, i.e. Fahadh Faasil, also joins Vikram in this mission, who was earlier investigating against Vikram.
Then in the climax, Rolex enters and he says for Delli and Vikram who have caused him the most damage that it took him 27 years to build this business empire and whoever will bring the head of both Vikram or Delli, will reward him, the interesting thing is that Vikram is standing there and listening to all this, because for the world he is already dead, this film released in 2022 Through this, Lokesh gives a tribute to his idol Kamal Haasan and Kamal Haasan makes a comeback which no one had imagined with this film of LCU. This film, made on a budget of 120 crores, collected more than 500 crores, and Kamal Haasan became a blockbuster.
Leo (2023) – The Game-Changer
| Directed by | Lokesh Kanagaraj |
|---|---|
| Written by | Lokesh Kanagaraj Rathna Kumar Deeraj Vaidy |
| Produced by | S. S. Lalit Kumar Jagadish Palanisamy |
| Starring | Vijay Sanjay Dutt Arjun Sarja Trisha |
| Music by | Anirudh Ravichander |
| Budget | ₹300 crore |
| Box office | ₹620 crore |
Then there is the entry of Leo in LCU, the strongest character in this universe, who fights with the hyena. He is a very unprotected, strong, and cunning character. For the world, Parthi is one and for the enemies, Leo and Parthi are on one side. So chocolate coffee is made on the other hand, the sword means that from the very beginning, the makers try to show us about both the characters.
Parthiban is living the life of a happy family man and running a cafe, and then his sacrificial father, Sanjay Dutt, reaches there looking for him. Finally, Leo has to come in his real avatar, but he comes in his real avatar only when the death of the person in front is certain, whether it is his father or uncle at the end of the movie.
In the last scene, Leo also gets a call from the Ghost Vikram, and he asks Leo for help to blind his ghost Rolex. Leo doesn’t say anything but just laughs and the movie ends with the audience thinking that Leo is a hero or a villain.
The special thing about LCU is That its detailing and side actors are also given a lot of importance, which is why Chutku Napoleon from Kaithi is again seen in Leo and that girl from Vikram is also seen in Leo to whom Vikram used to go.
Upcoming Projects and Sequels in the LCU
Chapter zero
Talking about the future of LCU, the first announcement made by Lokesh K Nagaraj is Chapter Zero. Now three things are shown in the poster of Chapter Zero. The first one is short, the second two stories and 24 hours. There are two theories regarding this. The first theory is that this film has been shot in continuous short in 24 hours, for this one shot is used in 24 hours and this film will show two stories.
The second theory says that it was the story of one night and two stories. What happens is that on the one hand, Dilli burns all the goods of Rolex, and on the other hand, at the end of Vikram, our Kamal Hassan also destroys all the drugs of Rolex. Whatever it is, this film will be a part of LCO, this is for sure. What is the story It cannot be said properly till now. Yes, Arjun Das, Naren, Kalidas and Jayaram will also be seen in this film. This is also confirmed, and it will show the story before Kaithi, this is also confirmed.
Benz
Then comes Benz in the LCU; on the birthday of Raghav Lawrence, the makers released a promo. In one scene, we are shown that Raghav Lawrence is cutting fish, and in another scene, we are shown a gun and his entire body. But in Blood as well as in He Was Waiting for Someone, Leo’s time is also seen making a sword with one hand and then cutting a fish in the first scene, which shows that he does his work quietly and when he gets a chance, He kills 100-200 people with bullets.
A wanted list is issued regarding Benz and there is a demand to capture him dead or alive. A fax has arrived to capture Bench dead or alive. It means that what crime he has committed is still not known. Is Benz Raghav Lawrence or someone else? This is also a question. Raghav Lawrence’s character, in anger, uses the butcher knife on the bench’s poster as The same butcher knife that Rolex has.
But will Benz be a protagonist, i.e. a hero, or an antagonist, i.e. a villain, or will he be neither of the two but a grey character? Nothing can be said. Look, no official announcement has been made yet but Wikipedia already describes Benz as a part of LCU.
Kaithi 2
Apart from this, another film from this LCU universe will be released and that is Kaithi 2 Lokesh Nagaraj made the announcement long ago in May 2021, the producer of the film SR Prabhu also confirmed that the second chapter of this film will Come but it will not show us the story of Delli but the earlier story, meaning this film will not be a sequel but a prequel film in which The focus will be on character building of Delli and hence the character of Anbu also returns in Vikram who is not dead but just injured.
They decided that Kaithi 2 should be made even larger We will make it on a scale, so the work on the production of this film was going to start in 2022, but Lokesh had said that first we will complete Leo and then we will start working on Kathi 2. After that, he got an offer from Rajni sir’s film. Now Rajni sir, How can we refuse? That’s why Kaithi 2 kept getting postponed; right now, the update is that the script of Kaithi 2 has been completed after Coolie Lokesh is going to work on Kaithi 2 only.
Leo 2
It will be fun now, won’t it, if we talk about the next project LCU Which is Leo 2, see, regarding this movie, Lokesh Kanagaraj himself said that its title will be Parthiban, which means again, we will not be shown the future but the whole story of Leo becoming Parthiban will be shown in detail, last time we were just told that Leo and Trisha Krishna meet on a trip, fall in love in two days and get married.
Leo 2 is contingent and it completely depends on Thalapathy if he wins the election If yes then Leo 2 will not come, after this comes Vikram 2, after the incredible success of Vikram, Kamal Hassan made a strong comeback and happily gifted Lokesh a Lexus car and also In an interview with the pink villa, it was also said that Vikram 2 is going to happen.
Vikram 3
Now look, Kamal Haasan’s first film Vikram was released in 1986 itself, that’s why people are calling its next part Vikram 3 and not Vikram 2, but the makers have confirmed that Vikram will return, Lokesh Kanagaraj had even said that Vikram returns will be the end game of his LCU universe, that’s why its closure should also be perfect.
Rolex
After this came a dedicated film, Rolex became a bigger brand by making another brand’s name its brand Only Lokesh can make it and in the last month i.e. October 2024, Suriya confessed that Lokesh had approached him with an offer of a Rolex film for him and Suriya had also accepted that offer, so these were some films which we will get to see in the future of LCU.
