Lokesh Cinematic Universe: Difference between revisions

Lokesh Cinematic Universe
Lokesh Cinematic Universe
Created by	Lokesh Kanagaraj
Original work	Kaithi (2019)
Owners	Dream Warrior Pictures; G Squad; Raaj Kamal Films International; Seven Screen Studio;
Years	2019–present
Films and television
Film(s)	Kaithi (2019); Vikram (2022); Leo (2023);
Audio
Soundtrack(s)	Vikram (soundtrack); Leo (soundtrack);
Miscellaneous
Budget	est. ₹395–495 crore (3 films)
Box office	est. ₹1,155–1,220 crore (3 films)

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The Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU), also known as the Lokiverse, is an Indian media franchise and shared universe of Indian-Tamil-language action thriller films created by Lokesh Kanagaraj.^[1] It is currently the highest grossing Tamil film franchise. The universe follows an elaborate conflict between law enforcement officers and vigilantes in South India who are at war against dangerous drug cartels led by powerful crime lords.

Development

Lokesh Kanagaraj expressed his desire to create a shared universe of films after completing his debut feature, Maanagaram. He emphasized that such films have enduring appeal. During the production of Kaithi, he conceptualized and experimented with this idea, incorporating multiple open-ended plotlines in Kaithi.^[2] He further developed this concept in collaboration with Dream Warrior Pictures and Raaj Kamal Films International for his film Vikram, utilising properties owned by these production companies. As a result, he successfully established a shared universe and announced plans for additional projects set within this interconnected cinematic world.^[3]^[4]^[5]

Naming

Though the name "Lokesh Cinematic Universe" was coined by netizens, post the release of Vikram, Lokesh accepted it as the official name of the universe. Other names for the franchise include the Loki Cinematic Universe and Lokiverse, as Loki is his nickname.^[6] ^[7]

In-franchise connections

Narain, George Maryan and Maya S. Krishnan are the only actors who have reprised their roles in significant capacities across multiple films within the universe.^[8] Karthi and Kamal Haasan have made voice-only cameo appearances, reprising their roles as Dilli in Vikram and Vikram in Leo, respectively.^[9]^[10]

Films

Film	Release date	Director	Writer(s)	Production house
Kaithi	25 October 2019 (2019-10-25)	Lokesh Kanagaraj	Lokesh Kanagaraj and Pon Parthiban	Dream Warrior Pictures
Vikram	3 June 2022 (2022-06-03)		Lokesh Kanagaraj and Rathna Kumar	Raaj Kamal Films International
Leo	19 October 2023 (2023-10-19)		Lokesh Kanagaraj, Rathna Kumar and Deeraj Vaidy	Seven Screen Studio

Kaithi (2019)

After a drug bust of 900 kgs of cocaine belonging to drug peddlers Adaikalam and Anbu in Trichy, Inspector Bejoy faces a dire situation when several cops are poisoned at a party by a corrupt cop in an attempt to recover the loot and kill the officers involved in the bust. To thwart the gang, Bejoy blackmails ex-convict Dilli into assisting him by threatening to prevent him from meeting his 10-year-old daughter for the first time. Together, they embark on a mission to transport the poisoned cops to the hospital and prevent Anbu's gang from getting their hands on the busted drugs. Their journey is fraught with danger as they continuously evade pursuing gang members, who receive support from a corrupt narcotics official, Stephen Raj.

The first installment of the LCU, it stars Karthi in the lead role, along with Narain, Arjun Das, Harish Uthaman, George Maryan and Dheena in pivotal roles.

Vikram (2022)

Amar, a black ops agent, is assigned to investigate a series of murders committed by a masked group of vigilantes. Their victims include high-ranking officials from the narcotics department like Stephen Raj and ACP Prabhanjan^[a], and Prabhanjan's seemingly harmless foster father, Karnan. As Amar delves deeper into the case, a tangled web of clues leads him to the mastermind behind the murders, a drug kingpin named Sandhanam, who controls the largest drug syndicate in Chennai. However, a surprising twist reveals that Karnan is, in fact, alive and is former Black Ops Commander Vikram, who leads the group of vigilantes, that now includes Bejoy. In the face of this revelation, Vikram, Amar, and Bejoy unite their efforts to take down Sandhanam's powerful drug syndicate.

The second installment in the LCU stars Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Fahadh Faasil with Kalidas Jayaram, Narain and Chemban Vinod Jose in supporting roles. Suriya made his first appearance in the LCU in a cameo role as Rolex. The film is a spiritual successor of Vikram (1986).^[11]^[1]^[12]^[13]

Leo (2023)

Parthiban, a café owner and animal rescuer in Theog, becomes a local hero after thwarting a group of robbers in his café. This draws the attention of gangsters Antony and Harold Das, who suspect him to be Antony's estranged son, Leo Das. Parthiban denies having any connection to them but they continue to hound him, and he takes matters into his own hands by eliminating both Antony and Harold and destroying their datura factory after confessing that he is Leo having left his past life behind. Following this, Vikram, knowing Parthi's identity as Leo, invites him to join forces in creating a drug-free society in India, while suggesting a mysterious connection between them from their past.^[b]

The third installment in LCU stars Vijay in the title role, alongside Trisha, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Sarja, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Priya Anand and Madonna Sebastian with George Maryan as Napoleon and a voice-over cameo by Kamal Haasan as Agent Vikram. It is based on 2005 film A History of Violence, which itself was an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name.

Leo emerged as the highest grossing LCU film, the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2023, the fifth highest-grossing Indian film of 2023, the highest-grossing Tamil film overseas and the highest-grossing film in Tamil Nadu.

Upcoming films

Film	Release date	Director	Writer(s)	Production house	Status
Benz	TBA	Bakkiyaraj Kannan	Lokesh Kanagaraj and Bakkiyaraj Kannan	G Squad	Pre-production
Kaithi 2	TBA	Lokesh Kanagaraj	TBA		Under development
Leo 2			TBA
Untitled Vikram sequel			TBA
Untitled Rolex film		TBA

Benz

Lokesh announced a new action thriller film titled Benz, starring Raghava Lawrence and directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan on 14 April 2024. A teaser was unveiled on Raghava Lawrence's 48th birthday, welcoming him into the universe on 29 October 2024.^[14]

Kaithi 2

As implied at the end of Kaithi, Lokesh had planned for a sequel, which he confirmed after its release.^[15] In an interview with Subha J Rao to Firstpost, Lokesh conveyed his interest in developing the film into a franchise, stating that he had an idea for both the prequel and the sequel, which depends on the recurring schedules of the cast members. In May 2021, the film's producer, S. R. Prabhu, confirmed that the sequel was in the works.^[16]

Kaithi 2 is intended to be a prequel for Dilli, focusing on his character. Later, in an interaction with fans through Twitter, Lokesh explained about Anbu's return in Vikram as he was knocked out and not dead, although he had stitch marks in his jaw due to his injuries.^[17]

Following the success of Vikram, Lokesh planned to expand the scale of the sequel,^[12] with S. R. Prabhu admitting that it would be bigger than the first film.^[18] Production of the film was expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022 but was delayed as Lokesh intended to resume the project after completing Leo and a film with Rajinikanth, titled Coolie (2025), which would not be a part of the LCU.^[19]

Leo 2

In early August 2023, reports surfaced indicating that Leo would have a sequel, marking Vijay's first venture into a sequel film.^[20]^[21]^[22]

Untitled Vikram sequel

Owing to the film's remarkable success, Kamal Haasan, in an interview with Pinkvilla, expressed the potential for a sequel to Vikram. Additionally, there were reports indicating the development of a third installment in the Vikram series. There have been many who said it would be named as Vikram 2 or Vikram 3, but the makers had decided that it would be titled Vikram Returns. In many interviews later on, Lokesh confirmed that the sequel to Vikram will be the official endgame for his universe and has always maintained that there needs to be a proper closure to it. ^[23]^[24]^[25]

Untitled Rolex film

In August 2023, Suriya revealed that a spin-off centered around his character, Rolex from Vikram, was being planned.^[26] Lokesh pitched Suriya an idea for a standalone film of the Rolex character, and the actor too agreed to the idea, which Lokesh later confirmed in October 2024.^[27]

Short Films

Name	Release date	Director(s)	Screenplay Writer(s)	Story Writer(s)	Dialogue Writer(s)	Status
Chapter Zero - The Origin of LCU	January 2025	Lokesh Kanagaraj				Post-Production

Chapter Zero - The Origin of LCU

Lokesh announced a short film on 29 October 2024 titled Pillaiyar Suzhi, which would describe the inception of the universe before Kaithi. Arjun Das, Narain, Kalidas Jayaram, and a few other actors from the universe will be a part of the short film. Lokesh released a first look of LCU Chapter Zero and titled it - 1 Shot 2 Stories 24 Hours, referring to the short film shot in 24 hours consisting of 2 stories and executed in a single shot. ^[28]^[29]

Additional crew and production details

Film	Producer(s)	Cinematographer(s)	Editor(s)	Music Composer(s)	Stunt Master(s)	Art Director(s)
Kaithi	S. R. Prakashbabu, S. R. Prabhu and Thiruppur Vivek	Sathyan Sooryan	Philomin Raj	Sam C. S.	Anbariv	Sathees Kumar
Vikram	Kamal Haasan and R. Mahendran	Girish Gangadharan		Anirudh Ravichander
Leo	S. S. Lalit Kumar and Jagadish Palanisamy	Manoj Paramahamsa
Chapter Zero - The Origin of LCU	Rahul Ilamagandi, Lokesh Kanagaraj, Jagadish Palanisamy and Abishek Raaja	Selvakumar S. K.
Benz	Lokesh Kanagaraj, Sudhan Sundaram and Jagadish Palanisamy	Goutham George		Sai Abhyankkar		Jacki

Future plans

In November 2024, Lokesh shared his plans for the franchise and the roadmap ahead. “The opening (first film) was so good. Now it’s structure is that there are only three films in the universe (so far). So, the fourth and fifth movies should be two basements, the sixth should be the pre-climax and the seventh or eighth should be the end. Going by that, I will get to do Kaithi 2, Rolex standalone and Vikram 2. If Vijay sir hadn’t announced retirement, I would have done Leo 2 as well. Then Leo 2 or Vikram 2 would have been the final film. That’s the maximum I can do with this universe".^[30]

Spin-offs

Lokesh revealed his plans for two spin-off series with George Maryan’s character Napoleon from Kaithi and Agent Tina from Vikram. However, he revealed he would let his assistants or other directors complete the same. Details of these are yet to be unveiled.^[10]

Music

Anirudh has composed the soundtracks and film scores of the LCU films under the label of Sony Music, except for Kaithi which was composed by Sam CS and Benz which was composed by Sai Abhyankkar under the label of Think Music.^[31]^[32]

Theme music

Lokiverse serves as the theme music for the franchise. It has two versions. The original version was featured in Vikram (2022),^[33]^[34] while the second version was featured in Leo (2023).^[35] The second version titled "Lokiverse 2.0" connected the elements of the franchise between the first three installments: Kaithi (2019), Vikram (2022) and Leo (2023).^[36]

Soundtracks

Title	Release date	Length	Composer(s)	Label	Ref
Vikram Film Soundtrack	15 May 2022	0:15:52	Anirudh Ravichander	Sony Music	^[37]^[38]^[39]
Leo Film Soundtrack	19 October 2023	0:22:57	Anirudh Ravichander	Sony Music	^[35]^[40]

Film scores

Title	Release date	Length	Composer(s)	Label	Ref
Kaithi Background Score	22 November 2019	0:28:18	Sam C. S.	N/A	^[41]
Vikram Background Score	7 July 2022	0:34:16	Anirudh Ravichander	Sony Music	^[33]^[34]
Leo Background Score	TBA	TBA	Anirudh Ravichander	Sony Music	^[35]

Timeline

Lokesh Cinematic Universe timeline
(as of *Leo*)
1992–1998
1991	Vikram flashback
1999	Leo flashback
2000–2018
2019	Kaithi
2019	Vikram
2020
2021	Leo

An official timeline has not been released by the makers, but the films give an indication of this.

In the cinematic universe, the events in Kaithi unfold in the year 2019, followed by the events in Vikram, which transpire three months after the events in Kaithi. Subsequently, the events in Leo occur two years later in 2021. The flashback storylines in Vikram and Leo depict events from 1991 and 1999 respectively. ^[42]

Recurring cast and characters

List indicators

This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in Lokesh Cinematic Universe.

An empty grey cell indicates the character was not in the film, or that the character's official presence has not yet been confirmed.
^C indicates a cameo role.
^M indicates an appearance in onscreen movie footage.
^V indicates a voice-only role.
^Y indicates a younger version of the character.

Characters	Films
Characters	Kaithi (2019)	Vikram (2022)	Leo (2023)
Introduced in Kaithi
Dilli	Karthi	Karthi^V	Mentioned^[c]
Inspector Bejoy	Narain
Anbu Das	Arjun Das	Arjun Das^C
Adaikalam Das	Harish Uthaman	Harish Uthaman^C
Stephen Raj	Hareesh Peradi	Hareesh Peradi^C
Napoleon	George Maryan		George Maryan
Kamatchi	Dheena	Dheena^C
Amudha	Baby Monica	Baby Monica^C
Commander Arun Kumar Vikram / Karnan	Mentioned^[d]	Kamal Haasan	Kamal Haasan^V
Introduced in Vikram
Amar		Fahadh Faasil
Escort		Maya S. Krishnan	Maya S. Krishnan^C
Rolex		Suriya^C
Introduced in Leo
Parthiban / Leo Das			Vijay

Reception

Box office performance and ratings

The Lokesh Cinematic Universe is currently the highest grossing Tamil film franchise.

Film	Release	Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb	Budget	Box office	Ref(s)
Kaithi	25 October 2019	92% 8.4/10	₹25 crore (US$3.55 million)	₹105 crore (US$14.91 million)	^[43]
Vikram	3 June 2022	95% 8.4/10	₹120 crore (US$15.27 million)	₹500 crore (US$63.61 million)	^[44]^[45]^[46]
Leo	19 October 2023	74% 7.2/10	₹300 crore (US$35 million)	₹620.5 crore (US$73 million)	^[47]
Total			₹445 crore (US$55 million)	₹1,225.5 crore (US$144 million)

Notes

^ The murder happens on the same night as the drug bust in Trichy, shown in Kaithi.
^ As seen at the end of Leo.
^ In Leo, Dilli is mentioned by Napoleon during an interaction with Parthiban.
^ In the opening of Kaithi, Inspector Bejoy, portrayed by Narain, queries Ajaz Ahmad if there is any information about the "ghost". Vikram reveals that the "ghost" mentioned in Kaithi is Kamal Haasan's character, Vikram.

References

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^ ^a ^b S, Srivatsan (3 June 2022). "'Vikram' movie review: Kamal Haasan steps back to watch Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi have fun in Lokesh Cinematic Universe". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
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[11] The murder happens on the same night as the drug bust in Trichy, shown in Kaithi.

[15] As seen at the end of Leo.

[45] In Leo, Dilli is mentioned by Napoleon during an interaction with Parthiban.

[46] In the opening of Kaithi, Inspector Bejoy, portrayed by Narain, queries Ajaz Ahmad if there is any information about the "ghost". Vikram reveals that the "ghost" mentioned in Kaithi is Kamal Haasan's character, Vikram.

[:3-1] Thapa, Shaurya (11 July 2022). "Vikram's Lokesh Cinematic Universe and All Other MCUs of Indian Cinema". India Today. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.

[:2-2] "Lokesh Kanagaraj reveals the idea of a cinematic universe". The Times of India. 13 June 2022. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2022.

[3] "A Ghost and a prisoner – One-stop shop for all things that might connect Kaithi and Vikram". Cinema Express. 2 June 2022. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.

[4] Athimuthu, Soundarya (14 June 2022). "What Is 'Vikram' Director Lokesh Kanagaraj's 'Lokesh Cinematic Universe'?". TheQuint. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.

[5] "Vikram director Lokesh Kanagaraj is building his own cinematic universe". The Week. Archived from the original on 19 June 2022. Retrieved 19 June 2022.

[6] Subramanian, Lakshmi (29 October 2023). "Why Lokesh Kanagaraj's 'Lokiverse' is a smashing hit". The Week. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 30 October 2023.

[7] "Kamal Haasan confirms Lokesh Kanagaraj's cinematic universe while talking about 'Vikram'? – Tamil News". IndiaGlitz.com. 19 May 2022. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.

[8] "Narain: Vikram's stellar response and box office numbers are new to me". Cinema Express. 19 June 2022. Archived from the original on 22 June 2022. Retrieved 7 August 2022.

[9] "Karthi gives the real reason why he did not act in Vikram and only gave voiceover". IndiaGlitz. 21 August 2022. Archived from the original on 22 August 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2023.

[:4-10] "Is Vijay's Leo a part of Lokesh Kanagaraj's Cinematic Universe with Kamal Haasan, Suriya and Karthi? Here's everything you need to know". The Indian Express. 20 October 2023. Archived from the original on 21 October 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.

[12] "Kamal Haasan's 'Vikram' shatters box-office records, check out his other hit films". WION. 14 July 2022. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.

[:0-13] S, Srivatsan (3 June 2022). "'Vikram' movie review: Kamal Haasan steps back to watch Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi have fun in Lokesh Cinematic Universe". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 25 June 2022.

[14] "5 reasons why you shouldn't miss Lokesh Kanagaraj's 'Vikram'". DT next. 4 June 2022. Archived from the original on 4 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2022.

[16] Akshay Kumar (29 October 2024). "Raghava Lawrence's Benz is officially a part of LCU". Cinema Express. Retrieved 30 October 2024.

[17] "Lokesh Kanagaraj confirms 'Kaithi 2' with Karthi". The News Minute. 29 October 2019. Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2020.

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[38] "#CinemaUpdate | Lokiverse 2.0 அடங்கிய 'லியோ' படத்தின் மியூசிக் ஆல்பம் வெளியானது!". X (formerly Twitter). Archived from the original on 19 October 2023. Retrieved 4 November 2023.

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[49] "வெற்றிகரமாக 75 நாட்களை நிறைவு செய்த விக்ரம்..! இதுவரை வசூல் செய்தது மட்டும் எத்தனை கோடி தெரியுமா?". Asianet News Network (in Tamil). 16 August 2022. Archived from the original on 17 August 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2022. இதுவரை 500 கோடி ரூபாய் வசூல் சாதனை செய்துள்ளதாக தகவல் வெளியாகியுள்ளது.

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v t e Filmography of Lokesh Kanagaraj
Films directed	Aviyal (2016; segment: Kalam) Maanagaram (2017) Kaithi (2019) Master (2021) Vikram (2022) Leo (2023) Coolie (TBA)
Miscellaneous	Lokesh Cinematic Universe