Mani Ratnam Apologises To Fans For Kamal Haasan Starrer Thug Life's Debacle, Says 'Audience Expected Something Far Removed...'

Kamal Haasan starrer Thug Life performed poorly at the box office. The movie earned negative reviews despite being one of the highly anticipated movies of the year. Now, director Mani Ratnam has addressed the debacle and apologised to the fans for not living up to the expectations. The movie was supposed to perform well as it marked the reunion of Haasan and Ratnam after giving a blockbuster hit 37 years ago with Nayakan.

Mani Ratnam breaks silence on the poor performance of Thug Life

In an interview with 123telugu, Mani Ratnam shared that he, along with his team, wanted to do something completely different, but it turned out that this was not what the audience desired. "For those who were expecting another Nayakan from the two of us, all I can say is we are sorry. It was never our intention to go back. Why should we? We wanted to do something completely different. I think more than over-expectation, it was another expectation. The audience expected something far removed from what we delivered," he was quoted as saying.

Thug Life opened at ₹15.5 crore at the box office in India, and since then, there has been no upward trend in the collection. In the opening week, the film managed to earn ₹44 crore domestically with ₹38.3 crore in Tamil. The movie's business was also hit because the film was banned in Karnataka after Haasan's 'Kannada born from Tamil' remark didn't sit well with the people of the state.

Will Thug Life release early on an OTT streaming giant?

The movie's digital rights were sold to Netflix for ₹130 crore, and when the makers witnessed the low earnings of the movie, they decided to premiere it on OTT. Later, a report suggested that Netflix might renegotiate the deal with the makers with a 20-25 per cent dip from the previous quoted amount. If everything goes well, then the movie might release within the 4 weeks of the theatrical release.

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