Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam’s much awaited gangster drama ‘Thug Life’ is already in the headlines, not only for its cinematic scale or the excitement of cooperation between Mani Ratman and Kamal Haasan. As fans have designed for reunioning of the ‘Nayakan’ pair after 38 years, the film has given birth to both a large -scale box office buzz and a fiery linguistic line.
Thug life advance booking collection
Despite being released on a non-heptitude on Thursday, the ‘Thug Life’ is showing strong signs of dominance at the box office. The film has already sold more than 7.74 lakh tickets across India, which is spread in 5,143 shows. In only 24 hours of advance booking, the film has raked ₹ 1.32 crore (except for blocked seats), and the figure increases to ₹ 3.55 crore when blocked seats are included, according to SACNILK’s data.
Kamal Haasan -With the discussion around Mani Ratnam collaboration, internal sources in the industry hope that the film will get Rs 35 crore in only 1 day. It can potentially cross the initial figures of big Bollywood titles such as ‘Sikander’ (₹ 30.06 crore) and ‘Chhawa’ (₹ 33.10 crore).
Thug life budget and scale
Combined jointly by Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam, ‘Thug Life’, comes with an estimated budget of ₹ 250-300 crores. Casting itself reflects the ambitious scale of the film-allegedly earning ₹ 40 crore with the Chambarson TR (STR), making it paying the most after Haasan. Trisha Krishnan has allegedly put in pocket of 12 crores in pockets, while actors like Abhirami and Jujo George have also checked large -scale payments.
The film released in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi will stream on its dramatic runs on Netflix.
Kamal Haasan dispute
But the route to release is not completely smooth. During the film’s audio launch, Kamal Haasan claimed that “Kannada was born from Tamil”, a statement that triggered backlash from pro-Kanada organizations and politicians. Karnataka Rakshan Vedic and Kannada and Culture Minister, Shivraj Tangdgi strongly opposed this comment.
In response, Tanggat urged the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) to ban all Kamal Haasan films until he apologized. Haasan refused to release a public apology, motivating KFCC to ban ‘Thug Life’. His production house, Raj Kamal Films, later filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court to lift the ban – but the court allegedly reprimanded Hassan for not returning his statement.
Despite the controversy, the film’s speed remains strong among the audience eager to see the reunion of the two most prestigious figures of Tamil cinema.