How Lokesh got Sathyaraj to act with Rajinikanth ?

Though we had reported a incident of Sathyaraj and Lokesh and left it at the point that Lokesh had not made up his mind on the offer that the actor made. ( read - https://southfilmy.blogspot.com/2024/05/g-v-prakash-dhanush-are-gay-sangh.html#google_vignette) Now it seems that Lokesh has brought Sathyaraj on board and with a twist- Sathyaraj plays a pal of Rajinikanth in Coolie and a full length. Beyond this, the coming together of Rajinikanth and Sathyaraj marks the end of a 38 year old feud between two actors. Last film they worked was Mr Bharat. A remake of Trishul the Big B Hindi film. Sathyaraj played father to Rajini in the film. In Hindi, the role was played by Sanjeev Kumar and with shades of grey. In the end, Sanjeev Kumar takes the bullet meant for Amitabh, his son from his love affair that he did not honour. Old timers tell us that the reason for Sathyaraj to be in the film was Rajini. A Kovai Distributor says that Rajini film Veera was sold for Rs 75 lakhs and Sathyaraj film was sold for Rs 25 lakhs. In fact, Sathyaraj anger against Rajini took a flash point when he was denied permission to hold a success meet of his film at Valluvar Kottam by State Government. The same venue was given to Rajinikanth as he was Superstar. It seems that AVM along with Shankar was pushed to offer Sathyaraj the baddie role that was played by Suman in Sivaji The Boss. AVM offered twice the market rate of Sathyaraj. At that time, the actor’s hero market had come down and was accepting supporting roles. Also his own production company run by his mananger , was caught in financial mess. Sathyaraj felt offended that he was given heavy amount for a negative role. He send Manivannan to Rajini and asked to play a negative role in a film with Sathyaraj as hero. Sathyaraj wrote an article Thamizh Da in which he praised Dr Vishnuvardhan the Tamil actor who made it big as Kannada Superstar and his stance on the Cauvery water issue and in same article referred Rajini as Sivaji Rao Gaikwad ( Real name that show Rajini’s Kannada Background). He also gave an interview in which he said that he would die if Rajini became CM as a non- Tamilan rule cannot be justified. It was clear that Sathyaraj statement was a personal one as he was an open admirer of MGR, a Malayali by birth. Years later it is said that Lokesh offered Sathyaraj a role that was parallel to Rajini and that of a antagonist . Sathyaraj was by now sitting with not less than 20 films in hand and widely basking as Kattappa. In his inimitable style, he did not hear out the role but instead asked Lokesh – You want to just have my name for the hype or because the role demands me ?. If you want me for hype, it will be costly. If the role demands, then it will be less. Now we will have to wait to see Coolie to know the truth. That the role is of a friend, we can expect that Sathyaraj is needed for his talent.