Thug Life box office collection day 1: Kamal Haasan-Mani Ratnam's film hurt by poor reviews, opens lower than Indian 2, Ponniyin Selvan; earns Rs 17 crore
The Kamal Haasan-starrer Thug Life, directed by Mani Ratnam, was released in theatres on Thursday amid much controversy following the 'Ulaganayagan's comments on the Kannada language. It appears that the controversy leading up to the release, and the film's shadow ban in Karnataka, has hampered its opening day collection. On the first day, the Mani Ratnam-directed film made Rs 17 crore, as per industry tracker Sacnilk. This is a much lower figure than that of Kamal's last release, Indian 2, and Mani Ratnam's last film, Ponniyin Selvan 2.
The film was released on a Thursday and witnessed 52 percent occupancy in Tamil. Thug Life was also released in Telugu, with around 21 percent occupancy, and Hindi, with just 6 percent occupancy. Thug Life had over 1000 shows in Chennai and these saw around 70 percent occupancy. In Hindi, the Delhi-NCR region had over 400 shows, with around 4.5 percent occupancy. In Telugu, Hyderabad also saw over 400 shows with around 19 percent occupancy.
Thug Life has received mediocre reviews, and this could be a factor in the film's performance in the long run. Kamal's last release, the widely panned Indian 2, directed by S Shankar, released in July 2024 after a lot of promotions and delivered an opening of Rs 25.6 crore. But it witnessed a steep fall afterwards, and finished its domestic box office run at just Rs 81.32 crore. Vikram, which released in 2022, was Kamal's last big hit, Directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj, the film started its box office journey with Rs 32 crore and finished its domestic run at around Rs 250 crore.
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For director Mani Ratnam, Thug Life's box office is a step down from his Ponniyin Selvan films. The first part, which released in 2022, opened with Rs 34 crore, and collected Rs 266 crore at the domestic box office. The second part, which released in 2023, opened with Rs 24 crore and finished its domestic run with a little over Rs 180 crore. It is yet to be seen if Thug Life can follow that path, but so far, it appears that audiences weren't as excited about the pair's long-overdue reunion as it might have seemed.
The Kannada controversy started after Kamal made a remark at the film's audio launch. In a conversation with actor Shivarajkumar, he called him 'family in another state' and remarked, 'Your language was born out of Tamil.' Several groups, political and otherwise, raised their objection to this statement and sought an apology from Kamal Haasan. He refused to apologise and the Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce (KFCC) threatened to ban his film. The ban was eventually put in place but Kamal refuse to issue an apology. At another event this past week, he did not address the controversy but thanked the people from Tamil Nadu for standing by him. '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,' he said.
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