Lokesh Kanagaraj did something rare in Indian cinema: he built a connected universe of films that audiences actually wanted to follow. The Lokesh Cinematic Universe, usually shortened to LCU, is a set of Tamil action thrillers about police officers, vigilantes and the drug cartels they fight. Characters cross between films, small details in one movie pay off in the next, and together they have become the highest-grossing Tamil film franchise.
If you want to watch it properly, here is the order, what each film adds and what is coming next.
The short answer: watch in release order
Release order is also the best viewing order. The films were written to reveal their connections in this sequence, and the surprises land best that way.
1. Kaithi (2019)
Stars: Karthi, Narain, Arjun Das
A recently released prisoner, Dilli, only wants to meet the daughter he has never seen. Instead, over one long night, he is pressed into driving a truck full of poisoned police officers to safety while a gang hunts them down.
Kaithi works perfectly on its own. It is a lean, relentless night-time thriller with no romance subplot and no songs, which was unusual for a star-led Tamil film at the time. Watch it first, because it introduces the world, the drug trade at the centre of the universe and characters who return later.
2. Vikram (2022)
Stars: Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil
A series of killings of police officers draws in a black-ops team led by Amar (Fahadh Faasil), and the investigation leads to a much older story. Vikram is bigger and more complex than Kaithi, and it is where the universe clearly takes shape: characters and events from Kaithi matter directly to the plot.
You can follow Vikram without having seen Kaithi, but you will miss several of its best moments. Its final minutes also set up the universe’s future in a way fans still talk about.
3. Leo (2023)
Stars: Vijay, Trisha, Sanjay Dutt
Parthiban runs a café in a quiet hill town. After he defends his café in a violent incident that makes the news, dangerous people arrive, convinced he is someone else from their past.
Leo is the most standalone of the three for much of its running time, which is why some viewers were surprised by its links to the LCU. When those connections come, they reward anyone who has watched the first two. It was the highest-grossing LCU film.
The in-story timeline
For the most part, the films also run in chronological order:
- Kaithi takes place over a single night in 2019.
- Vikram is set a few months after Kaithi. Its flashbacks reach back to the early 1990s.
- Leo is set a few years later still, with its own flashbacks to the late 1990s.
So there is no reason to rearrange them. Release order and story order agree.
The characters who connect the films
Mild spoilers ahead: this section names who returns, but not what happens to them.
- Dilli (Karthi), the ex-convict at the heart of Kaithi, is referred to in Vikram.
- Bejoy (Narain), the police officer from Kaithi, returns in Vikram.
- Vikram (Kamal Haasan), the veteran at the centre of the second film, is part of Leo’s connections too.
- Rolex, a crime lord teased at the end of Vikram, is a major figure in the universe’s future. A standalone Rolex film has been discussed.
What comes next in the LCU
The universe is still expanding, but release dates have moved around, so treat these as announced rather than fixed:
- Benz: directed by Bakkiyaraj Kannan and starring Raghava Lawrence, with Nivin Pauly. It is the first LCU film not directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj himself, and it has faced production delays.
- Kaithi 2: Lokesh’s return to Dilli’s story. Karthi’s character is expected to return.
- Chapter Zero: a short film of about ten minutes, reported to show the beginnings of the universe before Kaithi.
We will update this guide as new LCU films are confirmed and released.
Is Maanagaram part of the LCU?
No. Lokesh Kanagaraj’s first film, Maanagaram (2017), is a separate story about strangers whose lives collide over one night in Chennai. It is not part of the universe, but it is well worth watching: you can already see the tight plotting and night-time tension that define his later films.
Where to watch
The LCU films have streamed on different platforms at different times, and availability varies by region. Each title page on Cinearium shows where a film is streaming for the region you select in the header.
Where to go next
If you enjoyed the LCU, try our Best Tamil Crime Thriller Movies and Best Tamil Movies guides. For more twisty thrillers from across Indian cinema, see Movies Like Drishyam.
