Mani Ratnam‘s directorial venture Kamal Haasan and Silambarasan TR starrer ‘Thug Life‘ earned ₹17 crore on its first day at the Indian box office. Released on June 5, this Tamil film was much talked about among the audience, especially because this film was the comeback of Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan after 38 years. Both of them last worked together on ‘Nayakan’ in 1987.

The film may have earned ₹17 crore on the first day, but this figure is much less than Kamal Haasan’s previous film ‘Indian 2’, which collected ₹25.2 crore on the opening day. The main reason for this decline is said to be the film not being released in Karnataka. Due to the controversy over Kamal Haasan’s statement on the Kannada language, the film was not released in Karnataka, which directly affected the collection.

The film received an excellent response in some parts of Tamil Nadu. The film also received a good response in cities like Trichy, Madurai and Salem in Tamil Nadu.

However, the film’s second day collection was disappointing. While the first day’s earnings were ₹17 crores, on the second day the film was able to collect only ₹1.6 crores. A huge drop was also seen in occupancy rates. While the occupancy in Chennai was 69% on the first day, it dropped to just 29% on the second day.

‘Thug Life’ did not get the expected response in North India. The film was screened in less than 50% of the total screens there and the occupancy rate was less than 10%. This makes it clear that the film’s attraction is currently limited to South India.

The film stars actors like Kamal Haasan, Trisha Krishnan, Silambarasan, Abhirami, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nasser, Ali Fazal, and Mahesh Manjrekar.

Although the film has received mixed but appreciative responses from critics and audiences, the expectations from the pair of veterans like Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan do not seem to be fulfilled at the box office at the moment.

Now it is expected that the collection of ‘Thug Life’ will improve on the weekend, but the weak opening figures have posed a challenge for the film.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on the third day’s earnings of ‘Thug Life’ to see if the film will be able to recover from the falling pace or not.

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