The much-hyped film Thug Life, the second collaboration between Kamal Haasan and director Mani Ratnam, has turned into a massive box office failure, marking one of the biggest losses in recent Tamil cinema.

Despite an aggressive multi-language release—including Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, and Malayalam—and strong promotions in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the film fell flat. In the Telugu states, it grossed only around ₹2 crore in its opening four-day weekend, leaving distributor Sresht Movies (owned by Sudhakar Reddy) with huge losses.

The Tamil version, expected to be the film’s stronghold, also disappointed severely, becoming one of the all-time disasters in Kollywood. This follows Kamal Haasan’s underwhelming Indian 2, marking back-to-back flops after his 2022 blockbuster Vikram.

Mani Ratnam, who faced criticism for uninspired storytelling, couldn’t salvage the project despite pre-release buzz. Although Thug Life reportedly recovered production costs via non-theatrical rights, it remains a theatrical debacle across all languages.