Ace filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited film Thug Life, starring Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan TR, has collected ₹30 crore in India in the first three days of its release. After arriving in theatres with sky-high expectations on Thursday, June 5, the film’s performance has declined rapidly due to unfavourable reviews from critics and the general public.According to Sacnilk, the film registered ₹15.5 crore (net) on its opening day in India (the trade tracking website had previously reported the first day collections to be ₹17 crore, but has corrected it to the current figure). Unfortunately, the film’s collection fell by 53.87% on Friday, earning only ₹7.15 crore. Saturday’s early estimates read at ₹7.50 crore, taking the total net collections to ₹30.15 crore across all languages.The film’s occupancy figures reflected this decline as well; the Tamil version of Thug Life saw 39.12 per cent occupancy on Saturday, while the Hindi regions saw an average occupancy of only 8.92 per cent.Thug Life, one of the biggest Tamil films of the year, reunites Kamal and Mani Ratnam after the iconic Nayakan (1987). With music scored by A.R. Rahman, the gangster drama also stars Silambarasan T.R. in a pivotal role alongside Trisha, Nasser, Joju George, Abhirami, Bhagavathi Perumal, Ashok Selvan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Sanya Malhotra and Ali Fazal among others.The film is produced by Kamal’s Raaj Kamal Films International and Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies.The Hindu’s review of the film read, “A 163-minute chronicle of an elderly gangster’s tryst with love, destiny, guilt and death, Thug Life is a gangster crime drama with stretches so generic and cold that you might wonder if it was really the filmmaker at the helm.” Published – June 08, 2025 11:17 am IST