As Sinner lifted his trophy after a high-octane five-set clash, Wimbledon dropped a striking visual featuring the champion in a power pose that mirrored Thalapathy Vijay’s iconic Republic Day poster from Jana Nayagan. With Sinner holding his trophy in selfie style — reminiscent of Vijay’s pose in the film’s teaser — the post was captioned, “The First Roar”, a nod to the powerful background score composed by Anirudh Ravichander. It continued, “JANNIK SINNER IS YOUR WIMBLEDON CHAMPION.”
In a first-of-its-kind global crossover between sports and Indian cinema, Wimbledon has paid tribute to upcoming Thalapathy Vijay starrer Jana Nayagan following Jannik Sinner’s epic win over Carlos Alcaraz in the 2025 Wimbledon final. The post, shared on Wimbledon’s official social media handles, sent shockwaves through fans across the globe — marking the first time an Indian film and actor have been honoured by the prestigious tennis championship.
This unexpected yet monumental tribute has made Jana Nayagan the first Indian film ever to be acknowledged by Wimbledon, cementing its place in global pop culture history. Fans were quick to connect the dots, hailing the crossover as a proud moment for Indian cinema and Thalapathy Vijay fans worldwide.
Was Vijay Sethupathi the first choice to do the role that Shoubin plays in Coolie ? Read on what Lokesh says - Revelation came about organically as a response to another question posed to Lokesh Kanagaraj. He was asked, “Lokesh, when you’re writing, is there a mathematical calculation like, Oh my God, he got a highlight in this scene, so he should get another highlight three scenes later?” His answer was: “No no, if I don’t have the highlight for that character, I won’t even approach them. Likewise, Soubin sir, and initially it was written for someone, some other star. I don’t want to mention the name, but I couldn’t work with him for various reasons. But I don’t know where to go after that because I really wrote it for him. I wrote for him for, uh, at least six months, and it was like he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t take it, and I don’t know where to fix that character.”
He didn’t reveal the name of the actor who was supposed to play that role initially. Then he went to Fahadh as his second option, and Soubin was his last option: “I want to work with Fahadh sir again, but Fahadh sir was also not available, and I didn’t want him to do the same thing he had done in Vikram. So I was searching for a lot of other actors, and finally, I’ve signed on Soubin sir.”
Coolie is releasing in theatres on August 14, 2025. The “Monica” song lyric video was recently released, and Soubin appeared in the video alongside Pooja Hegde. But here is a fun fact: according to Tupaki, that song was created for the character played by Nagarjuna, and in the final film, it is likely that Nagarjuna and Pooja are going to be the main focus.
