After ten days in theatres, Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan's Thug Life is slowly crawling towards the Rs 50 crore-mark in its revenue across India. While the Mani Ratnam-directed gangster drama earned over Rs 20 crore across India in the first two days of its release, the subsequent days saw a drastic fall in its box office collection primarily due to dismal reviews and word-of-mouth.
According to Sacnilk, the film saw a collection of just over Rs 1 crore after the fifth day of its release. Week one saw Rs 44 crore revenue in total and by the second week, Thug Life's earnings had dropped to less than Rs 1 crore. On the second weekend, the film had collected just Rs 1.8 crore.
Although the Supreme Court issued a notice to Karnataka government seeking response on the film's safe release in the state, a response is awaited. Until then, a state-wide ban continues for the film following Kamal Haasan's controversial remarks on the Kannada language.
While the Karnataka leaders and the Film Chamber of the state demanded that the actor withdraw his statement and tender an apology, the declined to apologise, saying that his comment “said out of genuine affection for the legendary Rajkumar’s family, especially Shivarajkumar, has been misunderstood and taken out of context." The ban continues to impact the film's collection across India.
Thug Life marks the actor-director's reunion after 38 years. Our CE review of the film read, "The film is a fascinating exploration of the life of an ageing gangster coming to terms with his frailties, and dealing with the same with sardonic wit and insatiable lust. But then, suddenly, Thug Life wants to become a revenge drama fuelled by age-old reasons for betrayal that makes you wonder… Is this really the Mani Ratnam-Kamal Haasan film we were waiting for?"
The film's extended ensemble cast comprises Silambarasan, Trisha, Joju George, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Nassar, Bagavathi Perumal, Mahesh Manjrekar, Tanikella Bharani, Vadivukkarasi, Chinni Jayanth, Vaiyapuri, Baburaj, Ali Fazal, Rohit Saraf, Arjun Chidambaram, Chetan, and Rajashri Deshpande.
The technical crew of Thug Life features cinematographer Ravi K Chandran, music director AR Rahman, editor Sreekar Prasad and action directors Anbariv.
