Mani Ratnam, Kamal Haasan’s ‘Thug Life’ Opens Lower Than ‘Ponniyin Selvan II’, ‘Indian 2’
‘Thug Life’, directed by Mani Ratnam, underperformed on the opening day of its release.
Kamal Haasan’s highly anticipated film 'Thug Life', directed by Mani Ratnam, was expected to open to packed houses and set the box office on fire. However, the reality turned out to be quite different. The film underperformed on its opening day, dampened by a wave of negative reviews and recent controversy surrounding Kamal Haasan’s comments on the Kannada language. The situation worsened with the film being banned in Karnataka, significantly affecting its overall Day 1 performance. What was meant to be a triumphant return for the actor-director duo now faces an unexpectedly rocky start.
According to industry tracker Sacnilk, ‘Thug Life’ earned Rs 17 crore on the opening day of its release. The new film had an overall 52.06 per cent occupancy in the Tamil language on Thursday.
The new Tamil movie had an overall 5.79 per cent Hindi occupancy, while in the Telugu language, it had an occupancy of 21.36 per cent. The movie also stars Trisha Krishnan, Silambarasan TR, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ashok Selvan, Abhirami, Joju George, Nasser, Mahesh Manjrekar and Ali Fazal.
The opening day collection of ‘Thug Life’ is even lesser than Kamal Haasan’s last release, 'Indian 2', and Mani Ratnam’s last film, 'Ponniyin Selvan 2'.
'Indian 2', which was panned by critics and audiences alike, registered an opening of Rs 25.60 crore. However, the film ended its run at just Rs 81.32 crore. Kamal Haasan is chasing a box office hit as his last few films have underperformed at the ticket counters.
His last hit was 'Vikram', which was released in 2022. The Lokesh Kanagaraj directorial started its box office journey with Rs 32 crore and finished its lifetime haul at around Rs 250 crore.
Speaking of Mani Ratnam, his last release 'Ponniyin Selvan 2' had opened at Rs 24 crore and finished its domestic run at Rs 180 crore. The first part of the series opened at Rs 34 crore and finished with a total of Rs 266 crore.
‘Thug Life’ has been impacted severely by the Kannada-Tamil row. The entire matter blew out of proportion after Kamal Haasan made a remark regarding the Kannada language at the film’s audio launch.
In a conversation with actor Shiva Rajkumar, he called him “family in another state” and said, “Your language was born out of Tamil.”
This led to several critics and political analysts raising their objection to the statement, seeking an apology from Kamal Haasan. However, the actor refused to apologise and the Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce (KFCC) threatened to ban his film.
The ban was eventually imposed. Later, in a press conference, he said, “I should thank the entire state of Tamil Nadu, which stood behind me. I completely understand the meaning of the phrase, ‘Uyire, Urave, Tamizhe (my life and family are Tamil)’ that I use during public addresses. And I stand by it.”
