Kolamaavu Kokila

The film opens with the killing of a police officer by a cocaine-dealer lord Bhai and his henchmen. Kokila struggles to find a job to take care of her parents and sister. She stumbles on the cocaine smuggling business of Mohan. When her mother is diagnosed with lung cancer, Kokila is forced to work for Mohan. Her cunningness earns her a name in the business. The new inspector Guru is a no-nonsense cop and cracks down on drug dealers. Kokila is almost caught a couple of times but manages to evade the authorities. She convinces Mohan to kill two of his henchmen suspected of leaking information and then decides to quit the business. Mohan seemingly agrees but tries to kill her, however an enraged Kokila brutally murders Mohan and his men and tries to flee with her family but is caught by Bobi, who had recruited her initially.

He demands that she deliver a one last consignment of 100 kilos to Alphonse. Kokila is forced to accept and enlists the help of her family. Shekhar and Lakshman Kumar join them unaware of their smuggling. She delivers the load, but it is revealed that she switched most of it for salt. She then tricks Bobi to double-cross Bhai and then frames him for swindling Bhai. She has him killed and continues the shipment run. On the way, she is caught by the police, who were Alphonse's men in disguise. She manages to avoid getting tortured and kills off her captors with the help of her family. Guru tracks her down and arrests her. Kokila makes a deal with him to nab Bhai and bring the whole drug business down. The plan works out, Bhai is shot dead by Guru, and Kokila and her family escape punishment with Guru's reluctant help as the latter's wife was tricked to be on the location during the drug bust. In the end, the family starts a legitimate business of Kolam powder, calling it 'Kolamaavu Kokila'.

Special appearances in the promotional song "Kabiskabaa CoCo"

• Bijili Ramesh
• Lollu Sabha Manohar
• Theepetti Ganesan

Special appearances in the promotional song "Gun In Kadhal"

• Anirudh Ravichander

Nelson Dilipkumar, a creative director associated with the programs for the television channel Star Vijay, earlier announced a project in 2011 titled Vettai Mannan starring Silambarasan, Jai, Deeksha Seth and Hansika Motwani. But the film ran into production trouble, despite half of the film's shoot being completed.[2] In July 2017, on recommendation of composer Anirudh Ravichander, Lyca Productions hired Nelson to direct a female-oriented film starring Nayanthara in the lead.[3] Sources from the production house claimed that, the film will be a "black comedy on the lines of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan". It further added that Nayanthara was impressed with the script and the production house had her dates as the actress relieved off all her other commitments.[4] Post the announcement of the film, the team further discussed with Saranya Ponvannan and Yogi Babu to cast them in prominent roles, with Sivakumar Vijayan and R. Nirmal were announced as the cinematographer and editor.[5] While the title was initially announced as CoCo, it was further changed to Kolamaavu Kokila.[6]

The shoot began on 23 August 2017, with television anchor Jacqueline joined the cast during the first schedule.[7] Nelson added that the film will be shot extensively across Chennai and its outskirts. Despite eight days of shoot being continued, production came to a halt on 1 September after a strike organised by Film Employees Federation of South India which lasted for 12 days.[8] Shooting of the film went ahead for four months and was completed on 5 January 2018.[9]

The film's six-song soundtrack and score is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, in his first collaboration with Nelson Dilipkumar. Lyrics for the songs were written by Vivek, Vignesh Shivan, Arunraja Kamaraj and actor Sivakarthikeyan, in his first stint as lyricist.[10] After three songs — "Edhuvarayo", "Kalyana Vayasu" and "Orey Oru" — were released as singles on 8 March,[11] 15 May[12] and 13 June 2018,[13] the soundtrack was released by Zee Music Company on 23 July 2018.[14] "Kalyana Vayasu" was a viral hit, but Anirudh was accused of plagiarising the tunes from Sannan's "Don't Lie" and Chibz's "Feeling Me", for the song.[15] Responding to the allegations, the composer revealed that he had used the license for the beat.[16][17] The song was later removed from YouTube, citing the copyright issues,[18] and another version sung by Abhay Jodhpurkar was uploaded to YouTube on 25 January 2019.[19]

The soundtrack received positive response from critics. Behindwoods gave 3 out of 5 stars, saying that the album "is full of youthful exuberance" and "gives a trippy experience".[20] Thinkal Menon of The Times of India reviewed the album as a "pleasant one" although it reminds of Anirudh's previous works".[21] Moviecrow rated 3.75/5 stating "Anirudh Ravichander's knack for delivering catchy and immensely enjoyable tracks continues in Kolamaavu Kokila."[22] Karthik of Milliblog called it as "one of Anirudh's best" further praising him for "producing massively entertaining music".[23]

Kolamavu Kokila was released on 17 August 2018.[24]

Kolamaavu Kokila was remade in Hindi as Good Luck Jerry(2022).

Owing to the film's success, Yogi Babu confirmed the film would have second part at Jailer audio launch.[35] Later in an interview, Nelson also confirmed the sequel titled Kolamaavu Kokila 2.[36]

• Kolamaavu Kokila at IMDb