Mani Ratnam’s ‘Thug Life,’ starring the iconic Kamal Haasan, arrived in cinemas with sky-high expectations and intense fanfare. The emotional gangster drama with political undertones, features a striking ensemble cast and marks Silambarasan’s return in a highly praised role. The film received mixed to positive reviews, in which critics praised the demonstrations, especially the performance of Silambansan and Kamal Haasan. However, some audiences criticized that the film’s pacing and heavy story tone limited their appeal to a top audience. Despite this, the film made a strong initial discussion and enjoyed a grand opening weekend.Thug Life Movie Review
Thunderous start but weekday drop evident
‘Thug Life’ left for a strong start with 15.5 crores on day 1, run by a large-scale Tamil version (₹13.35 crore). Combined enthusiasm with names included in it caused high occupancy in major centers. However, with a dip of more than 53% on day 2, the film earned ₹7.15 crores. The weekend showed a little recovery on Saturday and ₹7.75 crores on Saturday and ₹6.5 crores on Sunday, thanking the film for the well-received performance and strong fan base of Kamal Haasan and STR.
Continues to decline at the box office
After the weekend, ‘Thug Life’ saw a steep drop in numbers. Monday collected only ₹2.3 crore, Tuesday ₹1.8 crore, and Wednesday ₹1.22 crore. By Day 8, collections dropped further to ₹0.28 crore, closing its Week 1 India net total at ₹43.31 crore. On Day 8, the Tamil (2D) version saw 14.85% occupancy in morning shows and 12.23% in afternoon shows, indicating waning interest among general audiences.
Early OTT release anticipated
Apart from Kamal Haasan, the film features a stellar cast including Silambarasan TR, Trisha, Ashok Selvan, Abhirami, Nassar, and Chinni Jayanth. The music is composed by AR Rahman, adding a rich emotional layer to the gritty narrative. OTT rights are already locked, and the film was said to be streaming on Netflix after 8 weeks. But the film’s poor box office performance might push it to have an early OTT release.
