‘Thug Life’, directed by Mani Ratnam and starring Kamal Haasan, was released in theaters with high expectations. The filmmaker’s signature was marketed as a high-octane action thriller, and the film brought a troop of stellar artists including Silambarson, Trisha, Joju George, and more. AR Rahman’s massive score and the striking visuals of Ravi K Chandran raised significant expectations for the action drama. Although the reviews were mixed, some welcomed the grand vision of the film and the magnetic screen appearance of Kamal Haasan, while others found the story dissatisfying and emotionally not connected.A blockbuster start on opening dayThe film opened to a roaring ₹15.5 crore on Day 1 across languages, largely driven by the Tamil version which earned ₹13.35 crore as per Sacnilk. While this marked one of the strongest openings for a Kamal Haasan film in recent years, the drop on subsequent days was steep. Friday saw a fall of over 50% to ₹7.15 crore, followed by a slight recovery on Saturday with ₹7.75 crore and ₹6.5 crore on Sunday. The total collection for the weekend came close to ₹37 crore, showing early signs of strain despite a promising start.Weekday struggle continues‘Thug Life’ could not maintain its weekend pace during the weekdays. Monday’s collection became ₹2.3 crore, after which ₹1.8 crore on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, ₹1.22 crore and ₹1.21 crore were recorded respectively, which raised the total collection to ₹43.43 crore. On day 9 (Second Friday), the film collected only ₹ 0.16 crore, which was a cumulative total of ₹43.52 crore. The declining occupancy with Tamil shows just a 12% average on Friday, suggesting that the film may be close to the end of its dramatic run.Aiming for legacy over numbersWhile ‘Thug Life’ may not have maintained its early box office promises, the film is still standing as a bold experiment in mainstream Tamil cinema.
