Kamal Haasan's much-anticipated film Thug Life released in theatres, except for Karnataka following controversy over the veteran star's "Kannada was born of out Tamil" remarks, on Thursday. According to early estimates reported by trade website Sacnilk, the Mani Ratnam film collected Rs 17 crore (nett) on its opening day in India.
The Tamil crime drama, which reunited Haasan and Ratnam almost four decades after their critical hit Nayakan, was also released in Hindi, Telugu, and Malayalam languages.
Thug Life had an overall 52.06% Tamil occupancy on June 5. The film saw strong turnout across various showtimes, with the morning shows registering an occupancy rate of 50.66%, which dipped a little in the afternoon, to 50.35%. Evening shows witnessed 45.15% occupancy and night shows peaked at 62.07%.
In Tamil Nadu, cities such as Pondicherry and Chennai recorded the highest occupancies at 70.25% and 69.25%, respectively, while Trichy saw a 65.75% occupancy rate, the report stated.
Thug Life is produced by Haasan's Raaj Kamal Films International, Ratnam's Madras Talkies and Udhyanidhi Stalin's Red Giant Movies.
During a promotional event of Thug Life in Mumbai, longtime friends Haasan and Ratnam shared their first impressions of each other.
Mani Ratnam said, "I remember when he was planning Sadma in Tamil...I think this is a story that I have heard, so that is what etched in my mind. When he heard the narration (of Sadma) and he came back, he enacted that scene in this compound to tell them what the scene was."
He added, "So, that's the kind of person he (Kamal Haasan) was and I was lucky that before I got into it (filmmaking) or just when I was trying to get into it, to be able to interact with him. So, I knew there was somebody who was making a big path for all of us to come in and that's what he has done."
Kamal Haasan, on the other hand, claimed to be friends first and professional collaborators later. He said, "My first impression is that I know him as a friend living in the same area. I didn't even know that he belonged to a film family. He was a person. I like the way he spoke, we became friends, and we had a group of friends. We were talking only cinema and no gossip. And, that's where it started."
Thug Life also features Trisha Krishnan, Silambarasan TR, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Ravi Mohan and Rohit Saraf in key roles.
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