Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan’s comeback film Thug Life struggles to meet expectations

After 38 years, Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan teamed up again for Thug Life, but the film hasn’t quite lived up to the hype. Following lukewarm reviews and a sharp drop in box office collections on Friday, the movie showed a bit of recovery on Saturday. According to trade website Sacnilk, Thug Life has collected around ₹62.5 crore worldwide over its first three days.

Breaking it down, the film earned ₹30.4 crore net and ₹35.4 crore gross in India during this period, with ₹26.7 crore coming from overseas markets. The opening day in India saw a decent ₹15.5 crore, but collections dipped sharply to ₹7.15 crore on Friday. Saturday saw a slight bounce back to ₹7.75 crore. Most of the film’s earnings are coming from the Tamil version, while the Hindi and Telugu versions are struggling, making less than ₹1 crore per day.

Interestingly, Karnataka has traditionally been a strong market for both Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan’s films, after Tamil Nadu and the Andhra Pradesh-Telangana region. For instance, despite mixed reviews, Shankar’s Indian 2 earned ₹8.55 crore out of its total ₹81.9 crore from Karnataka alone. The blockbuster Ponniyin Selvan Parts I and II collected ₹28.12 crore and ₹22.55 crore respectively from the state. However, Thug Life has been banned in Karnataka due to a language controversy involving Kamal Haasan refusing to apologize, which has affected its performance there.

On the positive side, the film seems to be doing reasonably well overseas, but Sunday’s numbers will be crucial in determining if it can gain momentum.

Thug Life features a star-studded cast including Kamal Haasan, Silambarasan TR, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ashok Selvan, Abhirami, Joju George, Nassar, Ali Fazal, and Rohit Saraf. This marks the first collaboration between Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan since their 1987 cult classic Nayakan. The story revolves around a feared mafia kingpin who seeks revenge after being betrayed.