Kamal Haasan in ‘Thug Life’.
| Photo Credit: Raaj Kamal Films International/YouTube
Thug Life, starring Kamal Haasan and directed by Mani Ratnam, continues to struggle at the box office. After the fifth day of it’s worldwide release, the pan-Indian film paled in comparison with Housefull 5, the big Bollywood release of last week.According to the portal Sacnilk.com, the gangster drama took its domestic earnings to 40.52 crore with a ₹3.62 crore earning on June 09, 2025 (Monday). The Tamil version of the movie made ₹3.25 crore while the Telugu and the Hindi versions collected ₹29 and ₹8 lakh respectively.The global worldwide gross of Thug Life stands at ₹75 crore. On the contrary, Housefull 5, despite negative reviews, managed to rake up ₹13.76 crore on the same day. The fifth film in the well-known franchise stars Akshay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Jacqueline Fernandez, Kriti Kharbanda among others.For Kamal Haasan, who co-produced Thug Life under his banner Raaj Kamal Films International, the movie’s poor show comes on the back of the disastrous performance of Indian 2, directed by S Shankar. Mani Ratnam, on the other hand, had a delivered a humungous hit with his Ponniyin Selvan films, before Thug Life.Also starting Silambarasan TR, Trisha,  Ashok Selvan, Joju George and Nasser, the Thug Life has music from A R Rahman and cinematography from Ravi K Chandran. Sreekar Prasad has done the editing for the movie.ALSO READ:Kamal Haasan interview: On ‘Thug Life’, AI in cinema and his unrealised projects The Hindu review of the movie said, “It doesn’t help that the film fails to add more to its archaic fight-for-the-throne conflict at the centre of the film. Subplots and layers seem added purely for convenience, like a character that returns in the climax to serve a meagre purpose.Despite a master filmmaker at the helm, all the star power in its arsenal and the right ingredients to make a heady modern gangster drama, it makes you grope in the dark for its beating heart.” Published – June 10, 2025 12:29 pm IST